IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Officially launched Tuesday morning, the new brandon.ca is the city's first website redesign in five-and-a-half years.

With a vibrant green background -- reminiscent of the city's flag and coat of arms -- the refreshed website is meant to engage people rather than just provide information, Mayor Shari Decter Hirst says.

The $3.4-million program was rolled out Thursday with statements from chiefs with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, the Southern Chiefs Organization and the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak in the north.

The groups say it's the first time First Nations health workers have had access to software to consolidate patient files and manage care through electronic records directly on First Nations.

But thanks to the MBTelehealth program, the resident of The Pas is among thousands of northern Manitobans benefiting from technology that links remote patients with faraway specialists.

"It's way better for me because it's only a short time up at the local hospital instead of having to spend a couple of days to go up to Winnipeg and come back home," says Sodtke, 60, a well-spoken, white-bearded pastor.

Selkirk's ER is now the first site in the Interlake to boast a new electronic health record system, known as eChart Manitoba. Provincial health minister Theresa Oswald announced the system in March.

According to the Interlake Regional Health Authority, eChart provides authorized healthcare providers with a consolidated view of their patient's information from a number of sources, including current prescriptions, immunizations histories, demographic information and lab results.

“What we are most concerned about is electronic health records,” said Mel Holley, the acting Manitoba Ombudsman.

“Right across the country what we are starting to see are what’s called ‘Snooping’ cases,” he said. “That is where people, because they have access to it, can now suddenly get into your electronic health record. That is an unprecedented access.”

According to the MB Telehealth website, the program provides information technology to connect people with healthcare services from around Manitoba via a high-speed, secure video link.

At the official announcement in Eriksdale, a local patient talked about her experience with Telehealth. Using the technology to communicate with anaesthesiologists in Dauphin, she was spared a presurgical trip to Winnipeg.

So with a mature 311 call center, why did the city decide to go mobile? According to 311 Manager Melanie Swenarchuk, technology is evolving quickly and the city wanted to engage citizens on the go. The app, which cost $15,000 Canadian, was done in conjunction with the city's CRM provider Kana Lagan, and integrates into the city's back office systems. "Having an issue reported does not require additional staffing," said Swenarchuk. "It may mean additional issues are coming to the surface which should have been reported anyway."

As has been the practice of the Canada Revenue Agency, when April 30 falls on a weekend, this year’s filing deadline extends to Monday, May 2. People have until midnight on May 2 to file a 2010 income tax and benefit return and to pay any balance owing.

If you or your spouse or common-law partner is self-employed, you have until midnight on June 15 to file your 2010 return, but you still have to pay any balance owing by May 2.

We connect to our wearable fitness trackers. We set our smart thermostats. We ask our voice assistants to set our smart appliances to pre-heat the oven just before we come home.

Then, we step outside into public spaces that are increasingly connected through devices that allow us to receive instant information about bus schedules, traffic, health services, safety alerts, community news, and much more. The rate at which internet of things (IoT) technology is being developed and deployed in the world around us is astounding.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has chosen Mohawk College’s eHealth Development and Innovation Centre (MEDIC) to be one of seventeen research initiatives that will receive a portion of its College-Industry Innovation Fund. Of the $15.3 million of investment funding aimed to support Canadian colleges, cégeps and polytechnics, $800,000 will be invested in Mohawk’s MEDIC.

The College-Industry Innovation Fund will allow Mohawk College to increase the establishment and development of MEDIC’s mission to provide IT integration, innovation and commercialization in the healthcare sector.

The 59-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., had good reason to celebrate. She had recently received a clean bill of health from her cancer doctors at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. But on the southbound flight last year, Morley began to experience an excruciating pain in her belly. The plane made an emergency landing and she was rushed to a private Mexican medical clinic.

Kim MacPherson says the Health Department contracted consultants who managed their own contracts and could access competitor information.

She says the consultants were part of project evaluation committees who recommended which consultants got work.

A consultant will be hired to examine more than 300 contracts dating back to 2007, when e-health was announced, Health Minister Madeleine Dube said Thursday.

"We want to make sure that everything is fine and the right procedures are in place," she said.

A Fredericton consulting company that helped create a controversial e-health record system for doctors in New Brunswick is no longer a partner in the project.

Accreon, which specializes in management consulting and IT services, has given up its stake in the system after being taken over by a U.S. equity firm.

The province’s doctors are venturing into new territory, setting up a private company that will oversee part of New Brunswick’s long-anticipated e-health system.

The New Brunswick Medical Society is the majority owner of a new for-profit company, Velante, which it established to run an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system for doctors’ offices.

Health Minister Madeleine Dube said Thursday an independent consultant will be hired to review the roughly 300 contracts involved in the $45-million program to create electronic health files for New Brunswickers.

Under the system, individual medical records will be available to health-care professionals across the province through a computer database, available only to people with the proper security clearance.

New Brunswick's Department of Education has a dilemma.

It needs to cut costs, but it doesn't want to do so at the expense of what happens in the classroom, so it has launched a public consultation in a bid to gather ideas on how exactly to do that.

One of the ideas being bounced around is finding ways to share services between school districts, anything from IT and human resources to transportation, food services, and professional development.

Telehealth systems in Canada are redefining the medical landscape and putting patient care as a primary concern. A national study put on by Praxia Information Intelligence and Gartner shows stunning growth in Telehealth use in the country last year.

With more than 5,700 Telehealth systems in at least 1,175 communities across the country, Canada is a global leader in improving access to care by connecting patients and care providers in different, and frequently, remote locations via telecommunication technologies.

Early-stage work on the $82-million Mackenzie Valley fibre optic cable began in different parts of N.W.T. this week, though Mother Nature has delayed the shipment of some equipment.

Ledcor, the Vancouver-based construction company chosen last year by the territorial government to build the 1,154-km fibre line, has four crews working this winter: one south of Inuvik and three in the Sahtu region. Each crew is made up of between six to 10 people and is currently removing brush and preparing work sites.

The DHAs and the IWK issued a request for proposal Wednesday to examine possible improvements by better sharing and standardizing administrative and support service delivery.

"The Shared Services initiative is about seeking opportunities for innovative, responsive and cost-effective services to the public," said Pat Lee, CEO of Pictou County Health Authority and executive sponsor for the project.