Inspired by social-networking features, the new platform will let patients and their health-care providers input and share information in a high security, high bandwidth online database.
It's a move Telus chief executive Darren Entwistle said will "revolutionize" health care.
"Now, Canadians will have the ability to create, store and manage their personal health information across their computers and smartphones and, in the future, TVs," Mr. Entwistle said in an announcement at an e-health conference in Vancouver.
"In a world where wireless network technology has enabled powerful mobile computing, their health information can be right at their fingertips, wherever their lifestyles or business travels take them because their smart-phone will accompany them."
Mr. Entwistle said the service is expected to be available for consumers by the end of this year.
Telus's new health space, which is being piloted with 750 Telus employees and will initially be available for health organizations and companies, is the first international deployment of Microsoft's HealthVault platform. It's launching with 12 partners and sponsors, including the Heart and Stroke Foundation, MedicAlert, Sunnybrook Health Service, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Asthma Society of Canada, the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Canadian Mental Health Association, Shepell. fgi and others in the health field.
Mr. Entwistle told the conference that a failure to check health records resulted in his own father's death.
His father was undergoing chemotherapy for acute leukemia. When medical staff found his fever spiking, he was given penicillin, despite his health records and a MedicAlert bracelet warning that he was allergic to the drug.
"He went into toxic shock, he had been doing great on chemotherapy.... Five days later, he was dead."
In a demonstration, Telus officials showed how a patient could start a personal health record, inputting their own information -- from childhood vaccinations, to allergies, to blood pressure readings -- to share with their doctors, pharmacists and other health-care providers.
In turn, patients would have access to their medical records, so if they move, see a specialist or end up unexpectedly in an emergency department, vital health information would be instantly available.
Parents would be able to start and maintain health records for their children.
"From early inoculations through to those inevitable checkups for an earache, a chest infection, or, as her child ages, possibly a sports injury, personal health records will maintain the history of her child's journey," Mr. Entwistle said. "Should this family move to another province -- or for that matter, another health region -- doctors will be able to view past history, drug interactions, allergies, vaccinations and other information that could help in the treatment of a chronic disease or illness, and deliver better health and lifestyle outcomes."
Dr. Ahmad Zbib, manager of consumer e-health for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, a partner in the Telus health space, said the service will allow people to take charge of their own health.
"This is a transformation in the way people are going to manage their health in the future," he said. "We are looking at putting people in the driver's seat in managing their own health."
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ONTARIO' S EHEALTH
And Canwest News Service-eHealth, Ontario's $2-billion online health management system, is scheduled to be completed by 2012.
-It was created in 2008 to improve the existing Smart Systems for Health Agency and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care's smaller eHealth Program. The purpose of eHealth was to facilitate the flow of confidential medical information between patients and their physicians in an easy-to-use and convenient format. In addition, reminders for upcoming appointments, emergency room wait times and treatment information will be made available online and updated regularly. eHealth is expected to give at least 5,000 Ontario family doctors access to online medical files by 2012
-Scandal broke in June 2009 when former eHealth president Sarah Kramer was fired for questionable procurement practices in which large contracts -- totalling $5-million -- were awarded without tenders from September 2008 to January 2009. The contracts revealed various relationships between senior eHealth officials and their former colleagues and associates. Fallout from Ms. Kramer's $317,000 severance package, as well as a pending financial report, led to former health minister David Caplan's resignation.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Gillian Shaw, Terrine Friday
Quelle/Source: National Post, 31.05.2010
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