PROFESSOR KENDALL HO

Professor Kendall Ho

Professor of Emergency Medicine at UBC Faculty of Medicine
Lead, Digital Emergency Medicine
iCON Executive Director

Dr. Kendall Ho is a practicing emergency medicine specialist, Professor in Emergency Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Medicine, and the Lead of the Digital Emergency Medicine Unit (https://digem.med.ubc.ca/). He is the medical director of the BC Ministry of Health HealthLink BC virtual physician program (www.healthlinkbc.ca/), and collaborates with provincial partners on the BC Real Time Virtual Support clinical service network.

He is actively involved in digital health research, applying innovative technologies and data science to support patient transition between emergency departments and the community. His award-winning body of research is conducted provincially, nationally, and internationally.

Dr. Ho is the Executive Director of the inter-Cultural Online health Network (iCON), a program funded by BC Ministry of Health Patients as Partners Initiative to support the Indigenous and multicultural population for optimal management of chronic diseases through in-person and digital approaches. His work in digital health and multicultural engagement has received both provincial and national research, education, and public engagement awards. In 2022, he was honoured with the Medal of Good Citizenship from the Province of British Columbia for his contributions during COVID.

He is a member of the BC Digital Health Clinical leadership committee, Health Canada Scientific Advisory Committee on Digital Health Technologies, National Research Council Medical Devices Research Advisory Council. He chairs the Canadian Association of Emergency Medicine Digital Emergency Medicine Committee, is a member of the Canadian Virtual Care Task Force, the International Medical Informatics Association Telehealth Working Group, and the International Federation of Emergency Medicine Novel and Advanced Technologies Special Interest Group.

Abstract: Medical Education and Training in the Era of AI

Digital Health (DH) and Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI) is rapidly flourishing in Emergency Medicine (EM) – Digital Emergency Medicine. Specific opportunities include:

  • Pre-hospital triage and monitoring to stratify patients needing immediate in-person EM care versus those that don’t,
  • ED triaging to allocate limited bed resources to patients in overcrowded ED waiting rooms based on patients’ acuity
  • Clinical decision support for better and more rapid discernment of ED patients for timely disposition decisions,
  • Improved experiences of patient convalescence post discharge for optimal self-management and clinical outcome

This presentation will apply the principles of DH/ML/AI into implementation in the EM context. The BC pan-provincial digital front door for patients with urgent issues – HealthlinkBC, additional digital experiences in BC and elsewhere, and challenges in research and implementation will be shared. A glimpse into the future of Digital Emergency Medicine and what steps we should undertake now will be discussed.