Ontario already has about 3300 physicians using electronic medical records for about four million patients. Devitt believes that, though the number seems small, this is still light-years ahead of other provinces. "We often hear Ontario is behind," he said. "That (four million) is more people covered by an electronic medical record than any other province."
Talk of increasing the use of eHealth comes amidst controversy after Health Minister Deb Matthews was forced to step down not long ago. Scandal erupted when hundreds of millions of dollars in untendered contracts were given to consultants. According to Devitt, though many of the employees at eHealth weren’t involved in the scandal, they experienced no shortage of animosity. Though Matthews lost her job, as did the former CEO and chairman of the eHealth board in the wake of the scandal, eHealth is working hard to forge ahead and create an atmosphere of encouragement for the scores of employees who’ve suffered some backlash.
Why the push? According to statistics, doctors using the eHealth system would be in a favourable position to help their patients and that is eHealth’s number one concern. For example, approximately 906,577 people in Ontario suffer from diabetes. Of that number, only one-third get the basic tests necessary for monitoring their condition. Regular testing would help reduce the risk of heart disease and blindness and eHealth could help monitor the needs for different tests and high-risk groups. The same goes for other chronic illnesses or life-threatening diseases.
As Devitt points out, this is not only necessary in the wake of some of the serious pandemics we’ve seen in recent years, it is also a necessity with the aging of our country’s baby boomers and the increase of their health demands.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Christina Sgro
Quelle/Source: Examiner, 12.12.2009
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