Telehealth

Telehealth-"The delivery of health care services across small or large distances using appropriate telecommunication and information technologies." Health Canada 1999

In the spring of 1997 Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation (AHSC) posed the question - "if we were to design a healthcare system where time, distance, and location of resources were neutral factors, what would the system look like?"

Embracing technology as a process enabler, we set out to answer that question and embarked on a provincial research and development project based out of the New Brunswick Heart Centre (NBHC) at the Saint John Regional Hospital Facility. Virtual Interactive Telehealth Assistance Links or Vital, as the project became known, was successfully transitioned from project to program in 1999. This scalable project platform is the foundation on which we have successfully deployed other telehealth initiatives.

Our research and evaluation has shown Telehealth:

• Improves QUALITY - Specialist expertise at AHSC provides a more rapid and reliable assessment of radiology images transmitted using telehealth.
• Improves ACCESS - Getting the right patient to the right place at the right time for urgent cardiac care is more easily achieved when using telehealth.
• Improves ACCEPTABILITY - Patients and caregivers consistently rate satisfaction with our telehealth applications very highly, often above 90%.
• Improves patient COST - The expense to patients for out-of-pocket travel costs for specialist treatment at a regional centre can be significantly reduced by telehealth.

AHSC featured in TIME Magazine

Last Updated: 09.04.2007