e-Health in Ontario -- is it real, or is it...?

The homeowners I greet on my daily jaunt around the neighborhood are such a great bunch; one bright and very cold but sunny Saturday morning, one of them remarked to the effect that it was a good job I had my hat on, otherwise I could suffer a sunstroke!
Last month during a snowstorm, another was digging out his vehicle, saw me coming and exclaimed somewhat frustratingly: "... don't you just hate these sandstorms!"

I brought those two examples up to highlight how easy it is to bury our heads in the proverbial sand with regards to anything, even e-Health; regarding the latter, I've had many comments to the effect that:

• there's no way the Government could put our health records on the Internet -- the privacy/security issues are insurmountable
• the system's working reasonably well right now -- many countries admire us for what we have
  
• nobody's gonna be interested in accessing their medical records from home
• this is just another instance of "Big Brother" trying to control us
  

There's a saying to the effect that all truths traverse 3 stages -- ridicule, opposition, and finally acceptance. Hopefully, information from my previous articles along with material from the various web sites included have been helpful in moving us to the acceptance stage.
Granted, those who voice opposition do have a right, but based on the life/cost-saving potential of e-Health, we should be using these concerns to help those responsible get things right as opposed to delaying implementation.

That said, the number one thing I feel we can do is to discuss it with our health providers during our next office visit -- s/he is probably well aware of e-Health and is in a good position to give an honest opinion based on their issues/concerns.

Secondly, we can keep abreast of what's happening locally, provincially and federally -- a good web site to track the Canada-wide progress of e-Health can be found here.

Thirdly, we can support our Local Health Integration Network (LHIN); the Government has divided Ontario into 14 areas (LHINs) and downloaded the health care funding and accountability to them; check out the web site for details about your specific LHIN here;
My LHIN (Durham Region) is called Central East and I've had the opportunity to attend one of their recent board meetings -- I believe these are held monthly, are open to the public and managed very professionally.
I think you'll get a good feel for the complexity of issues pertaining to both your LHIN and the system as a whole.

Fourthly, I feel that e-Health has the potential to revolutionize our health care system -- unfortunately revolutions never come cheap.
Apart from Canada, countries such as Great Britain, France, United States, Australia and Japan (amongst others) are all struggling with the funding issue; we need to get in touch with our politicians and make them aware of the fact that they have a constituency that's well-versed in e-Health, and that we expect them to keep the latter as one of their funding priorities.

Lastly, let's discuss it amongst family/friends; I've been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who've told me their doctor no longer uses paper records -- I'm also pretty confident that acceptance by the younger Facebook/Twitter-aware generation will be enthusiastic at a minimum.

Admittedly, some short-term pain is involved, but longer term we'll be both improving our health system and leaving something decent for the next generation.

So please, let's get involved -- after all it's our money -- better still, it's our health!

Until next time, let's go boldly forth.

Ernest A. James

President/CEO
Regal Informatics Inc.