Media.Knet.Ca

Keewaytinook Okimakanak's Health. Telemedicine (KOTM) and Kuhkenak Network (K-Net) program representatives met with the Chiefs of Ontario's (COO) Knowledge Management Advisory Group (KMAG) to discuss their strategy for integrating First Nation public health information with the provincial system as one step in the process for moving patient information online. The following article in Monday's Globe and Mail highlights some of the benefits of this development.

From the Globe and Mail

Your medical chart, just a mouse click away

Eight years from now every Canadian could have their health records online and some say that could save lives

LISA PRIEST, February 18, 2008

With the ease of online banking comes this Canadian first: patients perusing their X-rays, checking laboratory test results and discreetly obtaining a second medical opinion - all from the comforts of their home computers.

Ontario's Privacy Commissioner even keeps her electronic health record, called MyChart, on a memory stick, a device the size of a pack of gum that neatly tucks into a pants pocket.

"Given that I travel extensively, it's very important to have access to my [medical] records at a moment's notice," said Ann Cavoukian, who has undergone neurosurgery three times.

Although MyChart is available only to patients at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, other Canadian hospitals are coming out with their own versions of the paperless health record.

"By 2010, the goal is to have half of the population with an electronic health record," said Richard Alvarez, president and chief executive officer of Canada Health Infoway, an independent, federally funded agency that works with provinces and territories to invest in electronic health-record projects, typically by funding half the cost. By 2016, he wants every Canadian to have one.

The reality today, however, is far different: Only 9 per cent of Canadians have an electronic health record.

Convenience might seem an obvious first benefit, but those who tout electronic health records say the advantages extend far beyond that. By having quick access to medication histories, laboratory test results and images, doctors can provide the right treatment quickly, especially when it comes to dangerous drug interactions.

"Isn't it ironic that I can pay my hydro bill online from Australia," said Dan Strasbourg, Canada Health Infoway's director of corporate communications, "yet if I present at a Toronto ER unconscious, the physician can't even access my medical history housed at my physician's office a few blocks away?"

Although that is the case today, the rapid funding of electronic health records shows they are coming online.

As of Dec. 31, there were 245 projects under way in Canadian hospitals, other health-care facilities, pharmacies and laboratories, with an investment value of $1.332-billion, according to Canada Health Infoway, which funds the vast majority of electronic health-record initiatives in the country. That compares to 53 projects valued at $125-million in the 2004-2005 fiscal year.

Across Canada, many of the efforts begin with hospitals selecting patients who use the health-care system frequently.

In Edmonton, Capital Health is to launch a system this year in which medical appointments can be made online and reminders about checkups are provided. It will start by focusing on those with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, and on new mothers, who need to book regular appointments for their infants.

In British Columbia, electronic health records of patients who attend any one of a dozen hospitals at Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care are available to doctors at the touch of a keystroke. Although the records aren't available to patients, they do give physicians handy access to prescriptions, laboratory test results and, later this year, diagnostic imaging reports such as X-rays and CT scans.

Next month, Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ont., plans to launch an electronic health record where patients with chronic kidney disease can obtain laboratory results, including monthly blood work.

And at the University Health Network, which includes Toronto General, Toronto Western and Princess Margaret hospitals, patients diagnosed with breast cancer can view test results such as blood work. This spring, those with chronic kidney disease will have access to lab results.

"What we're also trying to do then is be pro-active in presenting the information in a way that does not create more anxiety and more questions," said Lydia Lee, chief information officer for shared information management services at the University Health Network.

If there's one thing that people involved in electronic health records agree on, it is that the home computer should not be the first source of a devastating diagnosis.

With MyChart, for example, if a test result suggests a new diagnosis, a patient will hear it from a physician first. That's because it has built-in time delays so images are not released until doctors have reviewed them, said Sarina Cheng, director of eHealth strategies and operations for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

The technology of MyChart is not new; it is secured through the same encryption technologies used by major banks for online banking. But Ms. Cheng says that's the point: Instead of being bogged down in technology, Sunnybrook decided to consolidate all that medical information with the patient, the ultimate owner of the health record, who can easily log on with a password.

MyChart allows X-rays, MRIs and CT scans to be stored and viewed online along with laboratory results of a complete blood count - part of a routine medical exam to check a patient's health status and to screen for numerous disorders, such as anemia and infection.

"I can be getting a second opinion while at home just by connecting with a clinic in the U.S. and giving access to the physician so he can review while we're on the phone," Ms. Cheng said. "When has health care been so convenient?"

For Donna Hammill-Chalk, 44, a breast-cancer survivor, using MyChart means having access to her records 24 hours a day. "Imaging reports, mammogram reports, ultrasound reports, pathology reports, the notes from all of my physicians," said Ms. Hammill-Chalk, a management consultant who lives in Markham, Ont., who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 41. "Anything you want to know about is there."

MyChart has also been used for three years at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where 120,000 patients are enrolled.

"Those patients with chronic diseases are clearly using it more than your healthy 35-year-old who has their annual physical," said C. Martin Harris, chief information officer of the Cleveland Clinic.

A patient with high cholesterol, for example, receives a pop-up reminder on the computer, saying when the next laboratory test is due. And it helps the institution, too.

"We really receive some efficiencies on our side," Dr. Harris said, "because the telephone stops ringing."