University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada June 13, 1997

Barriers to rural health-care delivery coming down

U of A's Telehealth sparks $21 million investment

By Judy Goldsand

A mother-to-be in a clinic in High Level has an obstetrical ultrasound examination supervised by Dr. Mary Ann Johnson in Edmonton.

Another patient and her health practitioner in Two Hills consult with a U of A physical therapist, Professor Monica Whitridge, without travelling to the city. Family physicians in four different Alberta towns don't have to leave their practices to attend a seminar with Dr. Paul Davis and colleagues at the U of A.

All this is made possible with Telehealth in pilot projects involving new long distance communication technology. The term Telehealth is used to describe the delivery of health services, educational programs, or collaboration in research using interactive video, audio, and computer technologies. It allows instantaneous consultation, physical examination, study of x-rays and laboratory findings, supervision of treatment or educational discussions among participants in diverse locations. Telehealth technology was introduced in Alberta by the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine with equipment provided by Hughes Aircraft of Canada.

"The barriers in health-care delivery to remote sites are coming down," says Masako Miyazaki, director of the Coordinating Council of Health Sciences (CCHS) Telehealth Centre. Alberta Health, along with an anonymous donor, will invest $21 million for equipment to establish 160 Telehealth sites across the province. The system will eventually extend across Canada and around the world, says Miyazaki. Sapporo Medical University in Japan will become a U of A Telehealth communication hub site for the Pacific.

The CCHS Telehealth Centre is a virtual Centre that oversees four sites on campus. Site Coordinators for three sites are in place: Rehabilitation Medicine: Dr. Lili Liu; Nursing: Dr. Pat Hayes; Medicine and Oral Health Sciences: Dr. Paul Davis. The Pharmacy site director has yet to be appointed.

Pat Hayes, Telehealth coordinator for the Faculty of Nursing, says the new technologies offer abundant opportunities. For example, the Keeweetinok Lakes Health Region in Northwestern Alberta has plans to offer health services via satellite connections to nursing stations in four northern communities. The day is coming, says Hayes, when a patient can be sent home with a small monitor that would allow a care giver to change bandages or do other procedures under supervision, via video, of health professionals located elsewhere.

Dr. Mamoru Watanabe, former dean of Medicine at the University of Calgary, chairs the Alberta Telehealth Subcommittee that is working with partners in education, health, government and industry to develop a coordinated provincial Telehealth enterprise. Alberta's Telehealth projects are only part of a much larger picture, he says. "Centres across Canada are experimenting with the delivery of health care and educational services to distant sites using the new information and telecommunication technologies."

Watanabe expects to submit the subcommittee's report to the Provincial Committee for Information Management and Information Technology, headed by Dr. Tom Noseworthy, chair of the U of A's Department of Public Health Sciences in a few weeks.

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