IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The site is part of Projet Telesante Manitoba, a MBTelehealth project established in 2007 to link people in urban, rural and north communities to health-care experts in other areas. The project is a collaboration between MBTelehealth, regional health authorities, Canada Health Infoway and Manitoba Health.

The health service is available in the region at Portage la Prairie, Notre Dame de Lourdes, St. Claude, Swan Lake, St. Jean and at the Boundary Trails Health Centre near Winkler.

“It’s a way for clients to be reached by specialists; that’s the biggest benefit of telehealth,” said Dorothy Wicklund, co-ordinator for the telehealth program at the Portage District General Hospital, on Oct. 21. “A specialist sits in Winnipeg and a client will sit in their rural community and be seen that way, as though they were speaking to a physician across the desk.”

Two more towns have been added to the network in the Parkland Regional Health Authority — Grandview in the west and McCreary in the east.

But industry experts are not ready to celebrate yet.

They note that despite undeniable advances, resistance to digitized patient information still remains quite high among the province's healthcare practitioners.

The residents of Markham, Ont. have voted -- not just for their mayor and council, but for a new way of electing them.

The town, located just north of Toronto with a population of about 220,000, piloted Internet voting during a 10-day early voting period before election day on Nov. 10.

Today, the United Kingdom's National Health Service is a leader in converting its electronic health records into a usable database for medical research. In Canada, we currently lack this capacity.

In his keynote speech at the federal government's technology forum, GTEC, Tuesday, Mr. O'Brien announced an aggressive plan to turn the city into an Internet-friendly capital that will be the envy of cities across North America.

Establishing electronic medical records (EMR) in doctors’ offices will be high priority for the Canada Health Infoway over the next decade, superceded only by the goal of establishing an electronic health record for all Canadians and launching a public health surveillance system.

Earlier this month, Accenture ranked Canada first in "e-government maturity" compared to 21 other countries, including the United States.

“These projects are the latest commitment to Canadians living in northern and rural regions through the Broadband Canada: Connecting Rural Canadians program,” said Tony Clement, Canada’s Minister of Industry, in a release Saturday. “The new economic opportunities these projects will create in these communities will benefit Canada for many years to come.”

The context for more collaborative and integrative service delivery (ISD) stems from two inter-related streams of thought and reform that have now converged: first, a philosophy of citizen-centric governance and service that emphasizes performance over process; and secondly, the emergence of the Internet and new digital technologies that underpin electronic government (e-government) and widen opportunities for electronic service delivery.

The Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (the AMCTO) is pleased to announce the launch of the AMCTO Municipal e-Government Centre internet site.

Myanmar has a recent history of bloodshed and one of the worst human rights records in the world. It's also in the process of developing e-government.

The "government" -- or militia junta that rules Myanmar by force -- is rolling out seven e-government pilot projects.

Clinicians (physicians, nurses and pharmacists) from nine provinces came together on September 15 to launch the Clinician eHealth Support Network: A peer-to-peer initiative, a group of health care providers who will provide hands-on support to colleagues in their respective jurisdictions to help them address challenges and uncover the opportunities and efficiencies that are associated with e-health.

Legislation paving the way for the collection and sharing of electronic health records will lead to potential patient privacy breaches, say groups opposed to the Bill which will soon get second reading in the B.C. legislature.

The B.C. government has made a $150 million commitment to electronic health records and has already spent three years planning the implementation which will not take full effect for about four years.

The provincial government committed $13 million last year to provide broadband access to the 10 per cent of New Brunswickers who didn't already have it.

Premier Shawn Graham says the project is on track to wrap up two months ahead of schedule.

Health Minister Mary Schryer said the provincial government has created the technology that will make it possible for health-care providers to switch to a 'one patient, one record' model, but staff must be trained to use the system and protocols and policies have to be created before the program is ready to launch.

Family practitioners and medical facilities create and maintain patient files for each person who visits them for care.

A colleague recently sent me a report by McKinsey that touches on the topic. "Fostering the Economic and Social Benefits of ICT," is a chapter in a 2010 report published by the World Economic Forum. In addition to highlighting ICT's share of global GDP in 2008 (5.4 per cent) and a projection for GDP share in 2020 (8.7 per cent), the report looks at the role ICT plays in improving education, healthcare and government services.