6/18/2012 The Canadian Nurses Association has launched a national online learning network. Nurses can now access more than 215 hours of online educational material.
6/11/2012 The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has recently come out with a study that has an optimistic view of our healthcare system. According to BCG, Canada is well positioned to take advantage of what it calls “value-based healthcare.”
6/5/2012 When it comes to information technology, storage doesn’t usually grab the headlines. But hospitals are now faced with incredibly complex requirements. Medical records include images that take up a lot of space, are not easily searchable and must be kept for the lifetime of the patient.
5/22/2012 One of the greatest challenges facing our healthcare system is the prevalence of hospital-acquired infections. It is an interesting problem in that it involves three competing interests that are common to Canada’s ongoing healthcare discussion: medical practices, funding issues and technological solutions.
5/15/2012 In the United States, by some estimates almost one-third of all healthcare costs are administrative, with insurance billing and bureaucracy acting like a ball and chain that must be dragged everywhere. It would be nice to think that Canada doesn’t have this problem, but of course we do.
5/7/2012 Canada’s tax base is fuelled by its resource-based economy. Sadly, there has been less attention paid to research and innovation in other sectors. Technology, and more specifically technology in healthcare, is seen almost as a pet project.
4/30/2012 A project-based partnership was recently announced between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Rx&D Health Research Foundation to foster innovation in healthcare delivery.
4/23/2012 In the rush to get more advanced technology into healthcare settings, something that requires significant financial commitment, we would do well to stand back and determine how efficient we are being when it comes to testing.
4/16/2012 Anyone who has had to adopt a new technology platform – even if only for personal use – knows that it takes some getting used to. At first, you don’t feel so efficient. Things are slower, and the learning curve is never as fast as you’d like it to be.
4/9/2012 As government agencies cobble together a strategy for cloud adoption within Canada’s healthcare system, the primary challenges will be how to deal with the inevitable "hybridization" of IT infrastructure.
4/3/2012 The end of March saw a flurry of activity on the EMR front, with three vendors gaining Infoway certification, and there is also news on the persional health record (PHR) front.
