IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

Nova Scotia's telehealth line handed more than 130,000 calls in its third year of operation, according to the department of health.

HealthLink 811 is a free service providing callers with access to registered nurses 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The 29 nurses answer general health questions or, if warranted, advise callers to head to an emergency room.

The service is three-years-old and the minister of health got the help of a one-year-old to mark the occasion Thursday.

“Given our region’s significant geography, information technology and information management are key resources to connect patients with care,” says Louise Paquette, CEO, NE LHIN. “Technology is the enabler for improving care coordination, navigation and access for fellow Northerners.”

The network will implement video conferencing technology from Hackensack, N.J.-based Vidyo Inc., enabling patients to consult with their clinicians via laptop and desktop computers in the home linked to the Internet. The rollout will take three years and also include additional providers.

“We’ve expanded the number of Northern telemedicine sites – now 261 in the northeast region,” said Louise Paquette, CEO of the North East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN).

“I’m very proud to say that telemedicine is a critical part of the North East LHIN’s plan to improve access to care for all Northeastern Ontarians. In fact, the northeast is the highest user of the technology among Ontario’s LHINs.”

The days of always having to drive for hours to see medical specialists in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto and other locations are becoming fewer as a result of the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN).

Both Elliot Lake and Blind River have more than one OTN site. Elliot Lake has one at St. Joseph’s General Hospital and another at the Elliot Lake Family Health Team (FHT).

The research, conducted in Ontario, Canada, involved a secure, regional web-based e-consultation service called Champlain BASE (Building Access to Specialists through e-consultation), which included a robust firewall and granular access controls.

Under this initiative, results of any lab test ordered for patients at HSN will be sent to OLIS, the central, secure, storage site for all lab tests performed in the province. Health-care providers linked to OLIS can then access the lab results to better co-ordinate patient care.

Muskoka’s direct line to health-care specialists just got a boost.

The province announced on July 19 that it is investing $850,000 in telemedicine annually in the North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration Network.

Over the past year, the North East LHIN’s use of Telemedicine has been steadily increasing. The North East is the highest user of the technology among Ontario’s 14 LHINs, embracing it as a way to improve access to care for Northerners.

The centre located at 161 Greenbank Rd. and is the operated by Sykes Assistance Services Corporation, which has a contract with the Ontario Ministry of Health. Nurses will provide general health information, help identify symptoms and connect callers to local health care services.

"We chose Ottawa for this latest call centre because we wanted to bolster our complement of bilingual nurses," said Sykes spokesperson Adam Jones in a statement.

Someone I know went to a Nepean clinic the other day, and when she finally saw a doctor almost four hours later, he was on a "TV" talking to her from Toronto.

The patient, my daughter, didn't know what to make of this bizarre encounter. I had heard of "telemedicine," but thought it only served people living in remote areas, such as northwestern Ontario, where a patient is linked by video to a doctor hundreds of kilometres away.

"We are actively a profit centre for the government," said Dr. Ed Brown, founder and CEO of the OTN Friday at the first-ever Northern Telemedicine Forum, held at Sault College in Sault Ste. Marie, attended by health care providers from across northeastern Ontario and, via videoconference, from the northwest.

Since it was launched just five years ago, OTN has set up more than 1,200 sites across the province, including hospitals and primary care clinics, with two-way videoconferencing. A full quarter of these sites are in Northern Ontario, though we have only 6% of the population.

Telemedicine is a television screen on a stand that has cameras attached, plus a digital stethoscope, to share information with specialists in wound care, ear, eyes and throat, and skin conditions. The program allows people to meet with out-of-town doctors at the West Parry Sound Health Centre (WPSHC), saving them a trips to offices in Sudbury, Toronto and other sites.

Parry Sound was already a heavy user of the system, but now it’s being utilized even more, said officials.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know this way is easier,” said Burk’s Falls Family Heath Team patient Shirley Taylor of Sundridge. “If I couldn’t come here and talk to my specialist in Sudbury, I would have to drive all the way to Sudbury for a five-minute appointment.”

Thanks to the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) in Burk’s Falls, Taylor is able to see and speak to her doctor electronically rather than make the trek north.

More residents living in the Central East LHIN will benefit from specialist care closer to home as the LHIN supports its health service providers to recruit 20 new telemedicine nurses to expand care delivery.

For patients this will mean improved access to health care, less travel and an increase in the types of health care services available at more than 80 telemedicine sites across the LHIN’s Scarborough, Durham and North East clusters.

Seriously. Would patients willingly unburden themselves about a profound mental problem while sitting alone in a room, in front of a camera, miles from the shrink’s couch?

Yes, it turns out.

Whether a sign of our evolving sensibilities in this digital age or just evidence of a huge practical advantage, remote psychiatry is booming at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.

The Ontario Telemedicine Network uses two-way computer videoconferencing to provide patients with access to care in hospitals and health-care locations across the province, as well as enabling educational programs and meetings for health-care professionals and patients.

Across the Central East Local Health Integration Network, 20 telemedicine nurses have been recruited and the service has been made available at more than 80 sites.

More people are accessing cancer care in Sudbury without having to travel long distances to do so.

They're gaining access to critical health care through video teleconferencing, said Tamara Shewciw, the chief information officer with the North East Local Health Integration Network.

The video network connects cancer patients from rural and remote areas to doctors at Sudbury's Regional Cancer Centre.

Skyping, texting and messaging are all second nature to the younger generation.

It's with this trust and comfort with technology that the Central East LHIN has taken a technological step to making sure Durham residents, especially younger ones, have access to health specialists from across Canada.

At least, that’s the hope for Dr. Edward Brown, founder and CEO of the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN). He was one of the speakers at the Mobile Healthcare Summit on Tuesday, a two-day event bringing together healthcare professionals and IT solutions providers in downtown Toronto.