IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Canada Health Infoway launched the study to gauge the use of telehealth technology and the benefits achieved to date. The study included data from sources including the 2010 Pan-Canadian Telehealth Survey and data from Health Canada’s First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB) on telehealth utilization and descriptions of services. It was conducted by Praxia Information Intelligence and Gartner.

For the purposes of the study, telehealth was defined as the delivery of services by healthcare organizations using health information and communications technology when the clinician and patient are not in the same location.

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, according to a new national study released today, announced Dr. Jennifer Zelmer, Senior Vice-President, Clinical Adoption and Innovation, Canada Health Infoway.

Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) commissioned the study, which was conducted by Praxia Information Intelligence and Gartner, in order to gauge the current use and benefits achieved from Telehealth investments made by the federally-funded organization, provinces and territories, the federal government, and others.

Pathologists at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles are consulting with their peers at Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University (HZU) in Hangzhou, China, through scanning technology offered by Aperio, a Vista, Calif.-based developer of digital pathology solutions. In Canada’s Northwest Territories, meanwhile, 18 community health centers spread out over 1.3 million square miles are having their radiological images read by specialists at Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife within 15 minutes, thanks to digital imaging solutions from Rochester, N.Y.-based Carestream Health.

The agreement was signed on July 25 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Ottawa, Canada.

The engagement was recently approved by the Cabinet to advance the establishment of the national communications and information technology framework.

The website, which uses Microsoft SharePoint and Google search technology, was available for public preview from August 8 to 12. During the preview process, Calgarians were able to test the new site by typing in keywords to find relevant information. Public feedback during the preview process was exceptionally favourable with very few problems reported.

"We were incredibly impressed with the amount of feedback we received. Comments on social media indicated this was a move in the right direction for the City of Calgary" said David Watson, General Manager of Planning, Development and Assessment and Project Sponsor.

The rise of smart cities is a global phenomenon that is transforming the way we live, work and interact with our environment. At the forefront of this revolution is Canada, a country that is leveraging its robust telecommunications infrastructure and integrating Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to create smarter, more efficient, and more sustainable urban environments.

Canada’s telecom infrastructure is a key enabler of the smart city revolution. The country’s telecom industry, led by giants like Bell, Rogers and Telus, has invested heavily in building a robust, fast and reliable network infrastructure. This infrastructure, which includes advanced broadband networks, 5G technology and satellite communication systems, forms the basis for the connectivity and data transmission required for smart city applications.

The three cities feature in the Smart21 Communities of 2008 list announced by the Intelligent Communities Forum's (ICF) recently.

New York-based ICF is a nonprofit think tank that focuses on job creation and economic development in the broadband economy.

Twenty eight leading Canadian urban infrastructure, internet of things and artificial intelligence companies are arriving in India on a five day visit from Sept 17 to explore collaboration opportunities with Indian businesses in the infrastructure and smart cities sector. The delegation will visit Lucknow, Mumbai and Bengaluru to engage with business and government leaders.

This week’s Smart City roundup features Australia’s need to focus on smart infrastructure, Canada’s lead in the race for smart infrastructure deployments, fresh smart city solutions to be featured in Ecobuild 2016, and India’s new list of cities included in the 100 Smart Cities project.

Australia’s need to focus on smart infrastructure

The population in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne is set to double by 2050 and now officials are looking at how to better approach infrastructure planning and operation to accommodate this growth.

U.S. and Canadian officials met in Detroit, Mich., earlier this month to announce the development of the 870-mile Binational EV Corridor that will connect Kalamazoo, Mich., with Quebec, Canada.

Transportation officials from the United States and Canada have announced plans to develop the first-ever U.S.-Canada EV Corridor, which would place fast DC chargers at 50-mile intervals along routes from Michigan into Quebec, Canada.

No serious discussion of e-government can leave out Canada. All its services are available online, and they are accessible through three portals designed around citizens’ needs: the customer gateway, the business gateway and the international gateway. They also use common infrastructure such as the ePass secure authentication system.

It was not just a mess, but an obvious mess.

On May 7, the Google company Sidewalk Labs announced that it was withdrawing from its partnership with Waterfront Toronto, and its plans to create a smart-city neighbourhood called Quayside.

The surprise announcement — attributed by Sidewalk Labs CEO Daniel L. Doctoroff to “unprecedented economic uncertainty” produced by the current COVID-19 pandemic — brings to a close one of the most bizarre and ill-conceived policy debacles we’ve ever come across.

Telus deploys mid-band 5G airwaves in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Victoria. Telus announced today that it "is beginning to deploy" its 3.5GHz mid-band 5G airwaves in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Victoria. With Rogers' network in Nanaimo, that now makes six cities getting the fast new form of 5G.

Telus follows Rogers and Bell, which announced their new 5G earlier this week. While all three carriers already have some form of 5G, the new networks will have wider bands of spectrum devoted to 5G and thus offer faster performance.