Michael Kedar, the champion of the wireless, secure health information network, recently profiled by André Picard in the Globe & Mail, today called on the federal government to act on the results of a recent poll on e-health. The poll (conducted for the Canada Health Infoway agency) shows that Canadians overwhelmingly favour an electronic health record.
"Canadians know that electronic health patient records provide the best opportunity to improve our health care system and to focus it directly on the patient," Kedar noted. "It's time then to fulfill the promise of e-health and reserve part of Canada's valuable cellular wireless spectrum to create a secure network for electronic health patient records to move along."
Mr. Kedar, a pioneer of the Canadian wireless telecommunications industry, has been advocating for the creation of the Secure Wireless Health Network (SWHN), which would form the backbone of a pan-Canadian e-health system. It would enable health care providers to access a patient's health records anywhere. Imagine a 911 call in the middle of the night, police and ambulance arrive at the patient's home to find him unconscious! The wireless 911 system is sophisticated enough to locate the patient, and the police wireless computer has ample information about him or her. But the paramedic, who is now confronting the emergency, has no health records or any information on the patient, not even his blood type. "Having a patient's full medical records right at the point of care means faster decisions, better care choices and ultimately the difference between life and death," Kedar commented.
"With Canadians so strongly supportive of electronic health records, it's time for the federal government to act and to reserve part of Canada's valuable wireless spectrum for essential health purposes," Kedar said. The federal government is planning to auction more cellular wireless spectrum in the near future. Kedar argues that the government should set aside part of this spectrum to enable the construction of a Canada-wide secure wireless health network based on military grade security and privacy.
Quelle/Source: Canada NewsWire, 20.11.2007
