For the first time, all 26 hospitals from the Bruce Peninsula to Windsor -- including London, Chatham, Woodstock, Sarnia, and Stratford -- are linked to a repository of digital images and test results via the Internet.
"This is about providing as much information to the front line practitioners as quickly as possible so they can provide the best level of care to the patient," said Greg Reed, the head of eHealth Ontario.
"By 2013, the entire province will be covered with this technology."
Hospitals in the Southwest and Erie St. Clair local health integration networks can now access each other's scans electronically. The program was in place between several hospitals but was rolled out across all 26 hospitals in the region at the end of June.
For patients, that means an MRI in Woodstock can be looked at by a specialist in London. Before, either the scan or the patient would have to be transferred to the specialist for an opinion. That means time and cost savings, said Health Minister Deb Matthews.
"Too often, when eHealth has been in the news, it's been about expenditure. EHealth is back on track in the province of Ontario and this is a milestone. Ontario is now leading the country," Matthews said.
"Each year, 1.5 million images will be transferred and accessed at different locations."
The technology is a revelation to doctors like Glenn Bauman, the head of radiation oncology at the London Health Sciences Centre.
"When I first started in hospitals, we had hard copies of images. Couriers would bring the films to us and as you can imagine, sometimes the couriers wouldn't arrive (and) we'd have to reschedule patients, When we went digital, it was almost the same thing, but with CDs.
"Now, we have the images as soon as they're required. I had a prostate cancer patient the other day in my office, and he told me he had a bone scan (the day before). I fired up the computer to see it so we could see if the results would affect the course of treatment."
Bauman has e-mailed neurologists to have them take a look at scans to see if their expertise can help in his patients' treatment, he said.
"It makes my life a lot easier. I'm delighted that all of Ontario will eventually be linked," Bauman said.
In fact, by 2013 eHealth officials plan to have the entire province hooked up to the repository.
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Alberta are ahead of Ontario -- those entire provinces share their images in the way Ontario is starting to in chunks, said Glen Kearns, a technology services vice-president at the LHSC.
"What Ontario has been able to achieve is remarkable," he said. "This allows quicker, better access to health care and that's what our patients want."
The Southwestern Ontario Diagnostic Imaging Network will allow 1.5 million diagnostic exams to be transferred to an image repository each year. From there, they can be accessed by acute care facilities in the two LHINs. The program will be expanded to include the Waterloo Wellington and Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHINs.
Eventually the program will allow family physicians access to the scans. Right now, it's only available in hospital settings.
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Quelle/Source: St. Thomas Times-Journal, 09.10.2010
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