It is exciting times for the Tele-Rehab 2.0 project!
I am at the eHealth National Conference and Tradeshow this week, and it has been very interesting to explore the landscape of digital health in Canada. The major areas of focus seems to be on electronic medical records (EMR), data storage and access, EPIC rollout, new communication platforms, mobile health applications, and wearables. However, I have also seen some pockets of innovation around remote assessments, mostly around improved teleconferencing capability. I have learned about the use of these systems for emergency assessment on First Nations to provide in-home support for children with disabilities, as well as psychological counselling. I have also learned about some innovative processes and techologies coming out of the BC Office of Virtual Health and the National Research Council Canada.
I have connected with some very interesting people, including:
Jonathan Choy, Provincial Medical Director, Virtual Health, AHS
Robyn Henderson, Entrepreneur, PhD Candidate at UofA Faculty of Rehabilitation, Speech Language Pathologist
Michele Fryer, Director, Office of Virtual Health Provincial Health Services Authority Vancouver, Canada area
Don Anderson, Clinical Telehealth Facilitator, Alberta Health Services
Judith Boileau, Advisor for Special Project Telemedicine, Hopital Montfort
Orpha McKenzie, Director of eHealth Services at Keewaytinook Okimakanak
Robert DiRaddo, Section Head, National Research Council Canada, Medical Devices Research Centre
As for the presentations, I have been paying attention to the challenges different initiatives have faces and how they set themseelves up to overcome those challenges. This will provide some interesting content for our Strategic Advisory Committee to explore!
In terms of project progress, we have confirmed 1-2hr meetings with all of our Clinical Leads to work through the initial drafts of the storyboards. We also have a meeting coming up with Kinetisense to look at their current technology and explore potential development opportunities. We have been meeting with community partners and receiving a lot of positive feedback, which indicates to me that we are on the right track. Now it is time to start making real headway on our objectives!
We have Emily taking on an increased role in the project, with 8 more hours per week dedicated to administrative and communications tasks. This should enable even more progress for Tele-Rehab 2.0 in the coming weeks.
-Courtenay
