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Ontario government investment in telemedicine brings health care to northern Ontarians - Investment Supports NORTH Network

KENORA, ON, Aug. 9 /CNW/ - The McGuinty government is improving health care in northern Ontario by investing $5.7 million in telemedicine technology to deliver health services to more northern communities, Minister of Health and Long Term Care, George Smitherman, announced today.

"Telemedicine is proof of the power of technology in delivering quality health care over vast distances," said Smitherman. "This investment in NORTH Network will enable thousands of northern Ontarians to receive care in their own communities instead of having to travel away from their homes and families."

The NORTH Network provides telemedicine services in northern and central Ontario and supports over 100 sites, including 65 hospitals, 11 nursing stations and three regional cancer centres. NORTH Network delivers a wide range of health services in areas such as psychiatry, dermatology, cardiology, neurology, burn management, paediatrics, and geriatrics.

Telemedicine uses video-conferencing telecommunications and digital technology, including electronic stethoscopes, to virtually connect patients to health professionals. There have been over 5,300 medical consultations through NORTH Network so far in 2004, compared to a total of 5,100 in 2003.

"It's gratifying to know that telemedicine is acknowledged as part of the creative solution to the transformation of health care in Ontario," says   Dr. Ed Brown, Executive Director, NORTH Network. "NORTH Network is pleased to continue to work with our many partners towards the integration of this technology into mainstream health care delivery for Ontarians."

"Our government is changing health care by bringing care to all Ontarians as close to home as possible," said Rick Bartolucci, Minister of Northern Development and Mines. "NORTH Network is one way we are achieving this commitment and improving the health and quality of life of northern
Ontarians."

Telemedicine reduces wait times for health services. Patients wait less than two weeks for telemedicine appointments through NORTH Network, compared to waiting five weeks for out-of-town consultations with specialists.

"Telemedicine is attracting health professionals to practice in rural and underserviced areas because it transports the clinical and educational expertise of teaching hospitals to even the most remote communities," said Smitherman.

"This announcement is important news for people living in northern Ontario who experience barriers accessing health care, said Chief Charles Fox, Head of Chiefs of Ontario. "It's one more step towards creating a health care system that responds to community needs, and is available to all."

This news release is available on our website at: http://www.health.gov.on.ca

BACKGROUNDER

PROVIDING TELEMEDICINE SERVICES TO RESIDENTS OF NORTHERN ONTARIO

The Northern Ontario Remote Telecommunication Health (NORTH) Network is one of three telemedicine networks in Ontario using technology to improve access to care. The province is providing $8 million in funding for the three networks in 2004/05 including $5.7 million to NORTH Network.

NORTH Network currently links over 100 sites, mostly in the North, including 65 hospitals, 11 nursing stations and three regional cancer centres. The network will be expanded to 50 more sites in 2004/05. It is the largest telemedicine network in the province linking remote northern communities to specialists and hospitals in Thunder Bay, Sudbury and in the southern Ontario.

Earlier this year, the NORTH Network celebrated its 10,000th  telemedicine consultation and the total is now 14,700. NORTH Network has made possible 5,355 medical consultations so far this year, compared to a total of 5,164 in 2003. Patients wait less than two weeks for a telemedicine appointment through NORTH Network whereas they may have to wait five weeks or more for an out of town, face-to-face appointment with a medical professional.

In addition to reducing waiting times for northern patients, NORTH Network is also helping to reduce the costs associated with travel for medical services. Over the last two years, the average cost for a telemedicine consultation was just under $11 compared to over $290 for each patient to travel out of town to see a specialist. This made possible savings totalling $1.26 million to the Northern Health Travel Grant program between April 2001 and March 2003.

NORTH Network supports consultations in 70 medical specialties including cardiology, burn management, dermatology, general surgery and internal medicine. Seventy-five per cent of telemedicine service activity involves patient services with the remainder being used for consultations between health professionals and training purposes. There have been over 1600 educational sessions, courses and conferences held over the Network facilities since October 2002.

There are two other telemedicine initiatives serving Ontarians-VideoCare and CareConnect. VideoCare provides services in southwestern Ontario at 45 hospital sites, two regional cancer care centres and three family medical centres while CareConnect serves eastern Ontario with links to 36 hospitals.

Via telemedicine, a health professional is "transported" to a patient at a distant health care facility using satellite video technology. Using this video link, and special medical instruments such as electronic stethoscopes or special cameras, the physician can assess patients as if they were in the same office.

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For further information: Members of the media: Eva Lannon, Minister's Office, (416) 327-4320; Dan Strasbourg, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, (416) 314-6197; Members of the general public: (416) 327-4327, or (800) 268-1154

The KO Telehealth project is contracting a consortium of partners to develop a comprehensive evaluation strategy that includes conducting and reporting on a number of research topics.

Announcement – For immediate release

July 8th 2004,

On July 6th 2004, Aboriginal Voice launched its first online dialogue on Aboriginal e-health issues. 

Aboriginal Voice is a Crossing Boundaries National Council project.  It is a collaborative initiative between several federal departments and National Aboriginal Organizations to undertake a multi-stakeholder national discussion on how information and communication technology (ICT) can or should be used in Aboriginal communities and governments. Aboriginal Voice was launched in March of 2004 with a national roundtable and is now preparing for a series of regional roundtables across the country that will begin in September. 

A key aspect of the Aboriginal Voice is to explore and make recommendations on important applications of Aboriginal e-government.  Improving health outcomes of Aboriginal people is an important public policy issue, and therefore we have made the application of ICTs to the problems of Aboriginal health a priority area for the project. Our hope is that through a dialogue that engages people who are directly engaged in Aboriginal health services, research and policy development that we will be able see more clearly how ICTs can be used to improve health care service to Aboriginal Canadians, make useful and reliable health information more accessible to Aboriginal people and others involved in Aboriginal health issues and assist Aboriginal citizens become more engaged in helping to shape how governments respond to their health needs.

Let your voice be heard in Aboriginal Voice’s dialogue space. 

Please visit our website to register at: http://www.crossingboundaries.ca/forum.av/

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For more information

We would be please if you could post or distribute the above notification.  For more information on the Crossing Boundaries National Council, please visit the website www.crossingboundaries.ca

“The Crossing Boundaries National Council is supported financially by the federal government, the provinces, municipalities and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.”

Marcia Nickerson
Head, Aboriginal Practice Group
KTA Centre for Collaborative Government
Kaufman, Thomas & Associates
416-204-9658

Click here to read KO Telehealth's June report (278K, PDF).

If you get an error message when trying to open this file you will need to change a setting: in Acrobat Reader 5: - select Edit / Preferences / Options. Disable the entry: "Allow fast web view". In Acrobat Reader 6: - select Edit / Preferences / Internet. Disable the entry: "Allow fast web view". Save the changes and reopen the web browser. Now the PDF document should be displayed.

Please print and distribute this update within your organizations and communities.

The report will be posted shortly on the KO Telehealth website under the main menu title, "Newsletters"

Raymond Pong, PhD, Research Director and Professor with the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research at Laurentian University visited K-Net at the Sioux Lookout office of Keewaytinook Okimakanak on Wednesday, June 23. Dr. Pong is part of the team of researchers working with Keewaytinook Okimakanak to complete the evalution of the KO Telehealth project.

The day before, Dr. Pong, Orpah McKenzie and Mae Katt video conferenced from the class of graduate research students at Lakehead University with Darlene Rae at the North Spirit Lake Nursing Station. During discussions, Dr. Pong emphasized the importance of these connections with the northern communications to help both students and faculty understand the realites and challenges facing everyone in remote First Nations.

Today, Dr. Pong, along with Nancy Grieves (Service Migration Coordinator for the KO Telehealth project) and Brian Beaton, participated in a number of informal meetings including:

• a video conference with Guy MacLaren from Health Canada's Primary Health Care Transition Fund, Kevin Houghton (KO Telehealth Project Manager) and Penny Carpenter (KO Acting Health Director and Finance Manager)
• a demonstration of the teleradiology equipment and meeting with Craig Legros at the Menoyawin Health Centre
• meeting with Dr. Dermot McLoughlin, radiologist at Menoyawin
• meeting with Carol Wood, Telehealth Coordinator at Menoyawin
• meeting with James Morris, Executive Director of the Sioux Lookout First Nation Health Authority
• meeting and demonstration of the available on-line communication tools with members of the K-Net team (Jamie Ray, John Moreau, Jesse Fiddler, Cal Kenny, Ruth Ann Beardy, Jeannie Carpenter)
• tour of the different components of the Sioux Lookout K-Net connections.

Guy MacLaren, Senior Program Officer with the Primary Health Care Transition Fund is visiting the KO Telehealth Program located in Balmertown, Ontario. The purpose of the meeting is to review the 2 1/2 year Contribution Agreement in which is primarily operational funding including a requirement for a detailed evaluation report to be submitted at the conclusion of the funding. Click here to see the news story on the KO Telehealth web site.Guy and the KO Telehealth team will be visiting Deer Lake on Thursday June 24th to see the equipment operational in the community. Lily Sawanas- Deer Lake CTC will be hosting the team and illustrating its uses within the community.For pictures of Guy's visit, please visit the photogallery.

KO Telehealth's team travelled to Thunder Bay to provide Health Canada and the Cancer Care Summit with information about their work with the First Nations across the Sioux Lookout health zone. Two new reports, containing the presentations to these groups, can be found on the KO Telehealth web site.

The two reports can be accessed by clicking on the titles below:

1. Cancer Care Summit Presentation
2. KO Telehealth Present to Health Canada

The Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO) Telehealth initiative and the KO Research Institute are working a number of different unversities to conduct research and produce an evaluation of the KO Telehealth project. Working with faculty and graduate students from Laurentian, Lakehead and Guelph universities, Kevin Houghton (KO Telehealth Project Manager) and Brian Walmark (KO Research Institute Coordinator) will be involved in a number of initiatives to support the development and sustainability of telehealth services in partner First Nations across the region. The research team will be involved  in participatory research (also called action research) in which the communities and primary stakeholders will have an active role in defining the evaluation objectives, setting priorities and in designing the tools.

The evaluation component of the KO Telehealth project is designed to fulfill three primary requirements:

1. ensure that the evaluation meets the needs of the First Nations communities and the First Nations political organizations;
2. assist First Nations communities, their political organizations, and other stakeholders in the use of the data and results arising from the evaluation including ensuring that the communities will have the means to continue to collect, analyze and use data in the years after the formal evaluation program has ended;
3. meet the needs of the main funding agencies, principally, the Primary Health Care Transition Fund: Aboriginal Envelope, FedNor (Industry Canada), and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.

The partners in this important project component include:

• The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD), University of Guelph - Dr. Ricardo Ramírez, Dr. Don Richardson,

Dr. Al Lauzon and Mr. Andres Ibanez, MSc candidate at SEDRD.

The Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (CRaNHR) at Laurentian University - The evaluation team at CRaNHR will comprise: Raymond W. Pong, PhD; John C. Hogenbirk, MSc; Sheila Hardy, BScN, MBA, PhD (candidate); and Bruce Minore, PhD (at Lakehead U).

The KO Telehealth Team - lead by Kevin Houghton

The KO Research Institute - lead by Brian Walmark.

The new KO Telehealth web site is showcasing the different efforts being made to complete the Telehealth expansion project into each of the Health Centres in the Sioux Lookout Health Zone First Nations. From May 17 to 19, KO staff travelled to Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug to meet with the Chief, Council, elders, community members and the local health centre staff.

Watch the Community Engagement site on the main menu of the web site for additional community visits and consultations. The photo gallery and news stories contains a number of pictures and stories documenting some of the work involved in rolling out this project.

For photos of the trip, visit Photogallery #1 and Photogallery #2

As well, the reports from this trip are available on-line. These include:

• Elder Stories (meetings with community elders to share and learn about their views concerning telehealth)
• Report to the Communities (staff report of activities, meetings and findings)

The new KO Telehealth web site is rich in news updates, pictures and reference material. The document "Building Bridges" provides a list of the steps over the past seven years that KO has taken to develop this service. The contact information for the new Community Telehealth Coordinators and the new sites being added to the network are also available.

Click here to visit the new KO Telehealth web site.