On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2018. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Joe ↗
In their words
Electronic health records are a real burden on the system. I believe it's contributing to physician burnout: they're spending more time doing data entry, toiling away at a computer, than patient care.
How much does a fax machine cost, a hundred, two hundred dollars? If your fax machine was like an electronic health record, it couldn't connect to any other fax machine, it would take you months to learn how to use it, and it would cost about $10,000.
We need to embrace technology and not revere it so much. Let's not just cheerlead technology, there's still lots of work to do.
Quick answers
Who is Joe Cafazzo?
A biomedical engineer at University Health Network in Toronto. He founded Healthcare Human Factors, holds the Wolfond Chair in Digital Health, and is a full professor at the University of Toronto. He has spent his career designing and evaluating health technology.
What does Healthcare Human Factors do?
It runs a large usability lab inside Toronto General Hospital that tests medical devices and health software, and it builds clinically validated apps, including Medly for heart failure and Breathe for asthma and COPD, that let patients manage chronic conditions from home.
What was his message at TechTO?
That healthcare is opaque and much health technology is unusable, so founders should embed with clinicians rather than assume. He praised app-based digital therapeutics but warned against cheerleading technology for its own sake.