e-Health -- EHRs to the fore

I had volunteered to help out with a Rouge Valley Health System Foundation (RVHSF) fundraising activity -- we were tasked with selling raffle tickets at a Pickering Rotary event, to support the pending acquisition of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine for the Ajax/Pickering hospital.

On the way to the park, it struck me that I knew nothing about MRI machines and should anyone ask me to explain the latter, it would be interesting to hear my response.
I resolved that Durham Region folks are a knowledgeable bunch and this would be a non-issue.

True to form, not one of the many people I met that day needed to know what an MRI machine was -- they either pleasantly declined or were happy to contribute and my allocation of tickets went quickly; I guess the combination of good weather, good looks, a great cause and pricing came together in a perfect storm, so to speak!

This got me to thinking about the day when Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) finally become as pervasive as MRI machines -- I have no doubt it'll be soon! The next couple of paragraphs give me cause for such optimism.

I attended the Central East Local Health Integration Network Symposium last month and was pleasantly surprised at the emphasis the president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), Mark MacLeod (M.D.) placed on EMRs/EHRs; to paraphrase, he told us that EMRs is the grease needed to move patients through the system more efficiently; he went on to say that more work needs to be done to connect family doctors to hospitals.
Wow, I think for the top guy from the OMA to include such a topic in a major speech is very encouraging!

I also recently tuned into a webcast from the Institute for Functional Medicine's 17th International Symposium -- the topic was: "Looking Anew at Cancer"; I thought I'd be hearing some earth-shattering truths from the speaker, Jeffrey Bland (PhD, FACN, CNS), about how to easily prevent cancer.
However, I was soon overwhelmed by the complexity of the ideas presented, until he made a statement that made me sit up and listen even more intently -- in effect, he indicated that pattern recognition was a critical tool in cancer treatment and one of the best ways to collect, store and present patient data was an EMR; I wanted to say "Amen, brother" -- at that point I felt like I was in a choir, in church!

I continue to be amazed at what other countries such as Spain are doing with EHR technology -- checkout this CBC news article; I keep wondering how soon we'll be able to best their efforts; maybe I need more patience...

Until next time, if you love soccer like I do, checkout the 2010 FIFA World Cup on CBC television -- the host country, South Africa, made a great start by scoring the first goal of the event -- a spectacular effort!

Photo credit: Ernest A. James and Heather Montague (Special Events Officer for the RVHSF), at the 3rd annual Pickering Rotary Ribfest.
Photo by: Jennifer Collins

Ernest A. James

President/CEO
Regal Informatics Inc.