Telehealth brings quality care to remote patients
An EHR success story
For the many Canadians who live outside of the major urban centres, accessing critical health care often involves the emotional and financial trauma of leaving family and home behind — but electronic health records (EHRs) and other information technology initiatives promise to change that.
One of the largest of those initiatives, the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN), delivers clinical, educational and administrative services to more than 1000 health care sites throughout the province, linking together close to 3,000 health care professionals.
Ed Brown, OTN's CEO, says, "In 2009-10, we supported more than 102,000 patient consultations, more than 10,650 educational events and nearly 12,000 administrative sessions across the province. [This is] one of the most active telemedicine networks in the world. Health professionals can actually 'see' a patient and manage his or her care without the patient having to travel or wait as long. It is a very exciting development."
The network uses live, two–way video–conferencing with medical devices such as digital stethoscopes and hand-held exam cameras to reproduce the health provider patient interaction over a distance. Launched in 2006, the program was initially provided through hospitals and has expanded into community settings such as primary care and mental health facilities. "The next great step for us," says Dr. Brown, "is to move right into the patient's home. That's really where telemedicine is going.
"Tele–homecare is very powerful technology in terms of improving patient outcomes and reducing health care costs, because it empowers patients to manage their own illnesses. We improve care — and patients are making fewer trips to the emergency department and being admitted to hospital less often. When you improve patient outcomes, improve satisfaction with the health care system and reduce system costs, that's very powerful technology."
