Upgrade to Dragon Medical One (Action May Be Needed)

Enhancement updates provide short alerts to new, fixed or improved Connect Care functions...

• Upgrade to Dragon Medical One (Action May Be Needed)

On July 7, 2025, Dragon Medical One (DMO) will be upgraded, as the current version will no longer be supported. Unfortunately, after the upgrade, some users may experience pixelation or blurriness when using DMO in Connect Care. This is due to Citrix display settings that can affect image quality when navigating screens. If this occurs, users can opt into the “DMO Citrix Lossless” access group, which will disable display compression and improve visual clarity. For details on how to request this access, see the tip sheet linked below (takes approximately 3 to 5 minutes). If you have any difficulties requesting access, please contact the AHS Help Desk at 1-877-311-4300.

If you do not experience any issues with your DMO display in Connect Care, no further action is required on your part.

• Tip: How to Request Access to DMO Citrix Lossless Group

Problems with Citrix Workspace on Personal Computers

Problem: Some Connect Care users who rely on personal computers (especially Apple devices) for remote connection to Epic Hyperspace are reporting problems completing logons.

Context: Citrix Workspace software is used by the Alberta Health Services (AHS) remote access gateway (myapps.albertahealthservices.ca) when prescribers logon to Connect Care on personal computers outside the AHS firewall (extranet). 

Some users are reporting that logon efforts are prevented by Epic screens that do not show the expected userid or password fields or are otherwise not functioning.

Citrix released updates to its Workspace software in mid-October and again in the first week of November 2022. The current updates appear to have problems with MyApps or Connect Care. The problems are prevalent with the latest Macintosh updates, especially the new version of Workspace optimized for computers with Apple silicon (M1 and later chips).

Solution: Until further notice, please do not accept Workspace offers to download and update the Citrix Workspace App. If experiencing remote logon problems, and the Citrix Workspace "about" option shows version "2210" or later:

• Uninstall Citrix Workspace
• Reboot computer
• Revert to the September 2022 version (2209 found in "install earlier versions" of Citrix downloads site).
• Reboot computer
• Try logging on via MyApps again.

Function keys not working on Mac Computers

Problem: The Connect Care clinical information system (CIS) relies on a lot of desktop (non-mobile) computer tasks. The keyboard is key to these interactions. Shortcuts can speed workflows and many are anchored to function or "F" keys, normally arranged as the top row of a keyboard. When some users are logged on to the CIS Hyperspace on a desktop computer, the function keys don't seem to work.

Cause: Keyboard function keys may be "mapped" to functions specific to a particular software product, like a word processor. These mappings may not be understood by the Citrix workspace that sits between Connect Care and the user. And some computers (e.g., Macintosh) have flexible function keys that come up on a "TouchBar" that can be configured.

Solution: A tip sheet explains (see last section) how to force a TouchBar or function keys to always send the intended shortcut to Connect Care.

• Tip: Keyboard Tweaks for Citrix Workspace and MacOS

Why does Connect Care access fail after upgrading to MacOS Catalina?

Problem: Some of our early-adopter colleagues have installed the Catalina MacOS upgrade on Apple's Macintosh computers. Understandable, as there are a number of great new features. However, connections to the Unified Access Portal for Connect Care (myapps.ahs.ca) fail. Citrix Workspace, the software that facilitates the connection, throws a security certificate error.

Cause: The method by which MacOS checks the certificates that enable encrypted connections from client to & from the server changed. All versions of Citrix Workspace for Mac prior to today's release (October 8, 2019 version 19.10.0.18.1910) fail. The fix from Citrix is new.

Solution: We advise Mac users to wait at least another few weeks so that the Catalina-compatible Citrix Workspace version can be more fully tested. For those who already upgraded to Catalina, we suggest installing the very latest version of Citrix Workspace. Please report back to cmio@ahs.ca with your experience so we can learn more about this problem.

• Citrix Workspace 1910 for Mac

Why are keystrokes on my Mac computer generating the wrong character in Hyperspace?

Problem: A few users have reported that keys typed on their Macintosh (Apple) computer generate the wrong (unintended) character in Epic Hyperspace when logged on to the Connect Care clinical information system (CIS). Special characters are affected (e.g., @#$%^&). Indeed, this can occur at the Hyperspace logon page and cause one's password to be misread (and so cannot log on).

Cause: CIS access on desktop, workstation, notebook, or laptop computers occurs via the Alberta Health Services Unified Access Portal (UAP) at myapps.ahs.ca. This causes the Epic Hyperspace software to be viewed within a “virtual machine” that is running on an AHS server. The viewer software is called Citrix Workspace (or Viewer or Receiver).

Problems can occur if the client’s (user’s) keyboard maps keys to different characters than the host (Citrix, then Epic) expects. This happens rarely but affects special characters important to SmartPhrases and SmartLinks.

Solution: A workaround involves forcing the Macintosh computer to interpret all keystroke input as coming from a standard American (US) input device. The Citrix server is already set to US keyboard input and cannot be changed. Simple steps for making this fix are outlined in a tip:

• Tip: Keyboard Tweaks for Citrix Workspace with MacOS