e-Health -- could this really happen?

Canada's Wonderland

I recently came across an E-mail message entitled "...coming to Ontario in 2013" which basically detailed a "futuristic" type of a conversation in which one Dr. Suzanne Allen describes the curtailing of medical procedures such as dialysis, stent insertion, kidney transplant and the like.
Apparently as early as 2013, no one over the age of 75 would be allowed a Ministry of Health (MoH)-approved major medical procedure, unless sanctioned by a local ethics panel.
The above-mentioned message ends with the following plea:
"This is a graphic reminder of the need to stay healthy. Get your [burial] plot now at your earliest convenience..while they last."


I quickly donned my sceptics hat and scurried over to the Snopes website to assess the veracity of the message, and was relieved to see that it was just another fake, as outlined in the response.

However, this was not the end of the matter, for I began to wonder what would happen should there be even a modicum of truth in what I had just read!
Suppose for example, that you awoke one day to the news that medical procedures were being rationed in Ontario because of budget constraints?
Your reaction may be one of ridicule, but is this an impossibility? Really?
Though I'd rather not be branded as a scaremonger, I still feel we need to be cognizant of the following:

•  black swan events such as 9/11, or the north-east power outage in 2003 are in the history books; they were, true to form, totally unexpected
• a friend informed me that her doctor has indicated boundary restrictions within Ontario are already in effect, i.e. new patients must seek healthcare services in the municipality where they live
• the OMA is currently at loggerheads with the MoH; one paragraph in a newspaper article aptly describes the gravity of the situation by stating: '[OMA president Dr. Doug] Weir would not put a price tag on the legal action being handled by law firm Heenan Blaikie LLP but said: “We are certainly prepared to pay whatever it’s going to cost.”'

So, now that our awareness levels have been ratcheted-up at least a notch, what can we do to mitigate should anything similar to the above occur?

Well, the following ideas immediately come to mind:

• maintain your efforts to remind your doctor why she needs an EMR (should such a system not currently exist in the clinic) -- all the ammo you need can be found here
• be prepared to switch to a healthcare provider that uses an EMR -- it's really that important to the management of your health
• you need information for the above -- unstructured data (i.e. paper records) cannot be easily turned into information
• better still, begin adopting the mindset that you should really be the custodian of  your (and perhaps your family's) health information (aka PHRs) -- stay tuned -- tools are coming to help you manage this

So until next time, enjoy the weather; and please, watch out for those lightening bolts!

Ernest A. James

President & CEO

Regal Informatics Inc.