e-Health -- a question of perspectives

I was given a somewhat amusing insight into the different ways we perceive things at a recent meeting -- the following question was posed:
"How many people will be rising early on Friday April 29th, 2011 to see the William/Kate wedding?"
Most or all of the ladies in the room raised a hand -- after all, they just had to see Kate's dress; none of the men even moved a muscle.
A supplementary followed, perhaps in an effort to justify the ladies' decisions:
"Well how many people would be rising early anyway, if Kate arrived at the Abbey wearing just a Tee, cut-off jeans and sandals?"
All the men in the room raised a hand.
This was a moot point, however; irrespective of who did/didn't get up early, the wedding would still go on!

This got me thinking about elections -- I'd like to posit that although we all have our own perspectives about (or affinities to) the various political parties, the impact on Canada as a whole following the voting process will be negligible.
You see, today, Governments don't run countries -- finance markets do, and the latter are averse to any changes that may negatively impact the return of their investments.
Sure, each party may slice the pie differently, but the size basically remains the same irrespective of which party forms the new Government.

You've no doubt heard the leaders trying to upstage each other by offering to spend more on health care or some other line item in the budget, but one has to remember that the money has to come from somewhere and since the current economy does not easily lend itself to any substantial tax or debt increases, it's only logical that other programs will have to be curbed.

The following three examples shows who's in charge with stunning clarity:

• even on a Provincial level, we're being crippled by the deficit/debt; spending on health care, education and the interest on the debt eat upwards of 65% of the budget -- this is according to a recent Government of Ontario publication which amongst other things, details the various financial markets that service our borrowing needs and keep us in line
• Jefferey Simpson in a Globe and Mail article argues that the various leaders are making-up promises on the fly -- their platforms are wish-lists at best
• not only did the aforementioned financial markets send shock waves throughout the World economies, they forced the World's biggest economy to kowtow to them by forcing their Federal Reserve to hold the first ever news conference in its entire history

Notwithstanding the above, as a democratic nation, we're still obliged to cast our vote; I also think Ontario (and Canada as a whole) has a huge opportunity to help spend available health care funds more efficiently by doing the following:

• implementing nation-wide electronic resources (EMRs, EHRs) that share patient information
• using the above to allow individuals to monitor their own health via PHR systems

These are ways that could help us wrench back at least some control of our destiny.


Ernest A. James

President & CEO
Regal Informatics Inc.