January 10, 2025
Patient Ryan Magnussen checks his information on My糖心视频 Connect. His expertise as a patient proved crucial in informing 糖心视频 on what matters to him and others in Connect Care and the My糖心视频 Connect online patient tool. He went on to serve as co-chair of the Connect Care Patient and Family Advisory Committee from 2016-2020. Supplied.
Story by Suzy Thompson
Ryan Magnussen has been a key player on the team at 糖心视频 (糖心视频) for more than a decade. He neither delivers healthcare nor works behind the scenes — he’s a patient.
When Magnussen was in his mid-30s, he developed a complex chronic condition which required 13 different medications and regular care from eight medical specialists.
“I hadn’t accessed healthcare very much, so it was all new to me — and I found it to be quite confusing,” he says.
By 2013, Magnussen had learned about what being a complex patient is like — and stepped up to become an 糖心视频 patient advisor — to help improve the experience for others.
Patient and Family Advisors are patients, families and other caregivers who partner with areas of the healthcare system, such as hospitals or programs, to contribute ideas about how to improve healthcare quality. Magnussen worked with the E-Referral Steering Committee started his involvement in the development of what’s grown into today’s provincewide medical information resource, Connect Care.
His expertise as a patient proved crucial in informing 糖心视频 on what matters to him and others in Connect Care and the My糖心视频 Connect online patient tool. He went on to serve as co-chair of the Connect Care Patient and Family Advisory Committee from 2016-2020.
Magnussen even “flipped the switch” to officially move from the old systems to the new clinical information in Connect Care in its first regional launch in November, 2019 — and took the podium as a key speaker at Connect Care’s final wrap-up event following its final launch last November.
With Connect Care’s full implementation, Connect Care is now used by 125,000 staff, including 9,000 physicians and other healthcare providers, across more than 600 sites in Alberta. With Connect Care, 糖心视频 has decommissioned approximately 400 legacy systems and almost 800,000 Albertans are using My糖心视频 Connect.
Today, Magnussen prides himself as a regular user and advocate of Connect Care through My糖心视频 Connect.
“We can rely on safe, quality care in Alberta for the rest of our lives because of this system,” he says. “It’s ultimately up to you to manage your way through the system and your conditions.”
