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Permalink Reply by nel on April 9, 2011 at 9:12pm

Simon Fraser University is located in Vancouver area , Burnaby , BC , Canada..... those in Northern Canada are quite a distance from most centers, where patients are treated for diabetes, heart /stroke , other chronic diseasess ...I was intrigued to read this in the Vancover Sun Paper the other day .

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Permalink Reply by Judith on April 9, 2011 at 9:25pm

Yes!....Thanks, Nel, for post.....Similar programs work here, but they are likely to be unfunded with current budget problems. Makes me sad......

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Permalink Reply by nel on April 10, 2011 at 12:11pm

Hi Judith , thanks for your response ....one hopes the day comes , when it is been realized that spending a Health care dollar now will save 4 Health care dollars later .
The Michael Smith Foundation is a private Company .
I copied the last sentence of the report : " Funding for the studies came from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, in partnership with the B.C. Ministry of Health, Providence Health Care, Vancouver Coastal Health and the other health authorities of B.C."
PS ...I will try to post this in the TuD Canadian group as well ; we have some members who live a distance away from larger Medical centers..

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Permalink Reply by Zoe on April 10, 2011 at 1:52pm

This is a great idea, and I think online resources are beginning to be used more and more for health management, such as using software to send numbers to doctors. I think the only limiting factor would be how the doctors get paid because you know they will expect to get paid for their time!

Actually, Telemedicine has been used for many years in rural areas. I worked in a rural area in california (yes, California has rural areas!) and our small poor county didn't have a psychiatrist. Our psych patients were seen for their evaluations via a T1 line/Telemedicine hookup with an agency we had a contract with in another county. It worked quite well. I think Telemedicine has the advantage that the doctor can actually see the patient. We had an RN who was the liaison in our office and would weigh patients, take their BP or whatever was needed. Even outside Psychiatry it seems to me that many doctors in all fields no longer are very hands on with their patients, relying more on tests than physical exams, though I don't know if that is a good thing.

My PCP, cardiologist and gastroenterologist here all use "Relay Health" an online service where you can send a message to the doctor or office such as asking for a lab slip or prescription refill. There does seem a variation in how often and for what things doctors use this service though.

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Permalink Reply by nel on April 11, 2011 at 11:27am

That is a good point Zoe...about payment to the provider of the service...and it will be much less costly to NOT air ambulance the patient to the larger Centers, if this can be avoided ; have RN's and others coach the patient instead of an Endo for instance ...no doubt there will be plusses and minusses to the program .
We do have a shortage here of Specialized Care providers .
I need to ask my GP , if I can order a script via e-mail ....
Thanks for mentioning about your " Relay Health " online service .

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Permalink Reply by nel on August 2, 2012 at 9:27pm

Re posting of the link ...Live video chat with Dr. James Lane , similar topic ??
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id...

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