IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

That’s why, over 10 years ago, a Telemedicine pilot project launched as a joint venture between Providence Care and Queen’s University Department of Psychiatry with the mandate to bring mental health supports to rural communities in Eastern Ontario through video-conferencing technology.

ASL interpreters are available at the Health Sciences Centre to help culturally deaf patients communicate with their care team as needed. However, finding an interpreter after hours in emergency situations can be a challenge. Ontario Interpreting Services (OIS) in Oshawa, operated by the Canadian Hearing Society, allows an interpreter in Oshawa to be “present” via videoconference within minutes through the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN).

“I strongly believe this is a first in Canada; it’s definitely a first in Ontario,” said Dr. Derek Manchuk, critical care lead for the North East Local Health Integration Network and the project’s lead.

In an effort to make the province's best doctors and treatments available to Windsor-Essex residents with less hassle and cost, local health care providers are offering telemedicine - consultations with specialists far away via teleconference with the help of a specialized nurse.

Think of it as a doctor's visit via Skype... but with a hack-proof, ultra-quick network connection.

Health PEI says it planned for 40 to 60 calls a day, but the first week an average of 70 Islanders daily called for health advice from a registered nurse.

If a nurse isn't available immediately, and the issue isn't urgent, people are told they'll get a call back.

Online health resources could do more harm than good for older adults, according to Julie Robillard, Assistant Professor of Neurology at UBC.

Robillard runs a lab at the David Mowafaghian Brain Centre. The research that goes on there looks at different types of information resources — particularly about dementia.

“We’re looking at many different types of online resources like self-tests, but also just websites and social media,” said Robillard.

This scale and these challenges has been very effectively discussed in this feature article from the Globe’s latest Report on Business supplement – Take Two Apps and Call Me in the Morning.

The OutCare Foundation announced, last week, that telemedicine is now being used for palliative care throughout the Champlain region. Thanks to the success of its recent Telelink fundraising campaign, the foundation says more patients with a terminal illness can access the care they need.

Telehealth is the use of communication technologies, such as videoconferencing, to deliver health, wellness and educational services from a distance. Peripheral devices such as exam cameras, stethoscopes, portable ultrasound machines and ophthalmoscopes can be attached to videoconferencing units to enhance clinical sessions.

The experimental Telehealth program has been expanded to the northern B.C. communities of Hazelton, Houston, Kitwanga and Telkwa.

The Telehealth program is a provincial initiative which uses videoconferencing and other new technology to connect children and teenagers suffering from various mental illnesses to consult directly some of the best Canadian psychiatrists from Vancouver and other large cities.

Eastern Ontario is getting an extra $950,000 a year in provincial funding to expand a telemedicine program that allows rural residents to get speedier care closer to home.

The expanded program would allow more patients in the Ottawa Valley to meet by video conference with medical specialists at The Ottawa Hospital.

The health network is seeing an increase in the use of telemedine technology across Northeastern Ontario because it is such an effective tool to connect doctors and patients.

Colleen Harrison says her 10-month-old daughter Abigail burned her hand with a cup of tea. "I guess because of her age... she didn't know enough to take her hand out of it so she was kind of standing there with her hand in this freshly boiled cup of tea. And I pretty much knew right away it wasn't going to be a nice burn." Doctors in North Bay recomended Harrison attend the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto but she was able to have the burn examined via a camera feed between North Bay and Toronto.

Mr. Bushby, 57, is part of an Internet-based health-care program that monitors heart patients at home instead of requiring them to show up in person. Developed at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, the technology has saved him hours of travel for appointments – he lives in Abbotsford, B.C., about 70 kilometres away – and given him peace of mind, he says.

Alan Price had a successful career in the video game industry as chief technology officer for EA Canada.

But a desire to create games that would do more than simply entertain, combined with a transformation in his industry that has seen video games shift from consoles to smartphones and social networks, prompted Price to join the burgeoning digital health sector where he's creating wellness apps for kids.

A new study released this week shows that telehealth in Canada has grown by more than 35 per cent annually over the past five years. According to Canada Health Infoway -- the government-funded organization that invests with provinces in telehealth initiatives -- the country now has more than 5,700 telehealth systems in at least 1,175 communities across the country.

While many people think of dial-a-nurse systems when they think of telehealth, the term actually refers to a whole spectrum of services and includes all kinds of telephone and Web-based technologies for delivering health services.

Ladysmith's Susan McAdam saw the toll travel took on her ill 85-year-old mother as they drove to a respiratory specialist in Victoria.

She was stressed and in pain, with her condition only worsening during the hour-long ride.

"It was really hard on her," McAdam said. "We'd have to travel down to Victoria only to have a 10 minute appointment and turn around."

Next month, the Ontario Telemedicine Network, which links roughly 3,000 healthcare professionals at 1,200 hospitals and medical clinics throughout the Canadian province with 2,200 videoconferencing stations, will make it possible for physicians and other caregivers to participate from their PCs. The go-live, involving 50 health professionals, will use software provided by Vidyo, based in Hackensack, N.J.

The goal, officials say, is to link healthcare providers and remote patients through their own computers.

Telemedicine is a rapidly developing application of clinical medicine where medical information is transferred via telephone, the Internet or other networks.

The centre known as Genesis Telecare was inaugurated in Yaounde yesterday 21st April 2009 by the Secretary General in the Ministry of Public Health, Professor Fru Angwafor III.

Prof. Fru Angwafor III said the initiative is a major step towards reducing longstanding problems in the health sector. Telemedicine provides a timely remedy to the numerous difficulties encountered by medical practitioners and patients, he noted.

This is according to a report by healthcare analysts GlobalData who predicts that the worldwide telehealth and telemedicine market will experience a boom in growth over the next few years as technology continues to expand, both in terms of number of applications and availability.