Media.Knet.Ca

KO Telealth and the Kuhkenah Network will be delivering workshops at the upcoming Chiefs of Ontario e-health conferences being held in Toronto on March 2 and 3 and in Thunder Bay on March 9 and 10. The workshop information follows ...

Nodin Child and Family Intervention Services delivered art therapy sessions utilizing the KO Telehealth private network to children in the remote First Nation Communities of Big Trout and Sandy Lake. Art Therapy is a therapeutic tool to support children with mental health needs. The sessions were extremely successful with positive comments regarding the sessions from all involved.

One product from last week's KO Telehealth conference in Sioux Lookout was a 2 minute video created by Cal Kenny, Blue Mason and Tina Kakepetum-Schultz. The video is available on-line from the KO Telehealth home page at http://telehealth.knet.ca.

Along with this video four additional videos providing additional information about telehealth services in remote First Nations are available from a new web page. The four other videos include:

	Health - Better access to services and support windows media player - Length 5:40minutes
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Telemedicine - Carol Wood
length:  2:34
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Teleradiology - Dr.Mcloughlin
length:  2:53
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Telehealth Expansion Engagement
length: 12:30
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Click here to visit the web page with these five video clips.

The Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telehealth team planned and delivered a very successful gathering in Sioux Lookout on Wednesday and Thursday, Nov 17-18. First Nation Health Directors and Community Telehealth Coordinators from across the Sioux Lookout Health Zone met to discuss the development of telehealth in their communities. There were approximately 80 people participating in this important planning event.

Click here to see a list of the members of the KO Telehealth team from Balmertown, Sioux Lookout and the First Nations across the north. They were joined and supported by:

• John Rowlandson, the former KO Telehealth Project Manager from British Columbia and Telehealth Sustainability Consultant with KO;
• Doug Semple (Wunnumin Lake FN) and Margaret Fiddler (Sandy Lake FN) who facilitated the gathering;
• The Kuhnenah Network team (Lars Dixon - Balmertown Network Technician, John Moreau - Sioux Lookout Network Technician and Dan Pellerin - K-Net Network Manager)
• Andres Ibanez (Guelph University) and John Hogenbirk (Laurentian University in Sudbury) who are working on the Telehealth evaluation;
• other tribal council health coordinators (Shibogama, IFNA, Matawa, Windigo) and health care program folks from the Aboriginal Health Authority, Zone Nursing, Health Canada.

Other guests joining the folks from the north included:

• Northern Ontario School of Medicine (Orpah McKenzie)
• Confederation College
• Adcom and Polycom with the telemedicine suite used in the north
• First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada (Simon, Ernie, Kathy)
• Primary Health Care Transition program of Health Canada (Jackie, Guy)
• FedNor of Industry Canada (Carl Seibel)
• Canada Health Infoway (Denis, Krista, Tina)
• Nunavut Telehealth project team members (Angela, Megan, Carlos)

Watch for the pictures in Telehealth Photo gallery (click here) and for further updates and reports in the KO Telehealth web site at:

http://telehealth.knet.ca

Over the past week, the concept for the new KO Virtual Health Access Centre to be developed in Balmertown was shared with a number of groups. Lead by the support of the KO Chiefs' resolution from their October 22 meeting in Dryden, the KO team is now sharing this innovative concept and service with other groups to secure their support.

On Tuesday, the KO team met with the team from the new Northern Ontario School of Medicine to discuss how their team would benefit from this development. Then on Thursday, the team met with the consultant from the HayGroup that is preparing "A Study of the Role of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and the Development of a Regional Service Plan for Northwestern Ontario" to share how the Virtual Health Access Centre would support the telehealth services across the region. Click here to see the concept paper distributed to these groups.

Then on Thursday afternoon, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Chiefs in assembly in Thunder Bay, passed a resolution supporting KO's efforts to develop this service.

Click here to read the story on the Telehealth web site - Be sure to visit the KO Telehealth web site for regular updates and reports about this initiative - http://telehealth.knet.ca

The Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telehealth project is building a sustainable health care service and delivery model for rural and remote communities. The KO Telehealth Web Portal provides all the latest updates and news from the communities as new developments unfold. The KO Telehealth initiative is putting the tools into place in remote communities to support both the local health care team and the community in accessing improved health care services.

Meanwhile, the country's leaders are now preparing to meet to discuss traditional health care delivery models and protect their turfs (click here to read the CMA's latest billion dollar solution for reducing waiting periods for required medical attention by transporting patients all over the place - from CBC web site). As well the new Northern Ontario School of Medicine (our new medical teaching institution) is spending millions to build more "white elephants" so medical students can create their comfortable environments in the cities (click here to read about this story in the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal). Building and investing in more inefficient institutional and corporate solutions that have created and continue to contribute to the expensive and ineffective health care system is simply leading Canadians towards private health care that only benefits the few.

Alternative and innovative health care delivery systems that support local, community-based health services require a major shift in everyone priorities to ensure these tools and systems are recognized and used by everyone. KO Telehealth and all its community partners are leading the way in developing local health care solutions and capacity for communities.

From the KO Telehealth news item ...

"KO Telehealth is pleased to provide the July 2004 Report for stakeholders and partners. July brought three new communities onto the Telehealth services. The Community Telehealth Coordinators (CTC's) in Kasabonika, North Caribou Lake and Big Trout Lake were anxious to access the equipment in order to start their application training on the iDoc cart. The CTC's are trained in their home communities via the KNet and NORTH Network over the secure data encrypted line to provide confidentiality for patients accessing health care."

Click here to read the rest of the story.