The current state of electronic consultation and electronic referral systems in Canada: an environmental scan.

Access to specialist care is a point of concern for patients, primary care providers, and specialists in Canada. Innovative e-health platforms such as electronic consultation (eConsultation) and referral (eReferral) can improve access to specialist care. These systems allow physicians to communicate asynchronously and could reduce the number of unnecessary referrals that clog wait lists, provide a record of the patient's journey through the referral system, and lead to more efficient visits.

Challenges of self-management when living with multiple chronic conditions: systematic review of the qualitative literature.

Objective: To explore the perspectives of patients who live with multiple chronic conditions as they relate to the challenges of self-management.

Data Sources: On September 30, 2013, we searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL using relevant key words including chronic disease, comorbidity, multimorbidity, multiple chronic conditions, self-care, self-management, perspective, and perception.

Study Selection: Three reviewers assessed and extracted the data from the included studies after study quality was rated.