I hope some of you might be interested and respond!!!
September 30,1998
News Release
Advisory Council on Health Info-Structure
Asks Canadians for Comments on Interim Report
OTTAWA - The Advisory Council on Health Info-structure is calling on
Canadians to comment on its interim report which outlines how the use of
information and communications technologies could support and promote
more informed decision making about health, and the health sector, by
individual Canadians, health professionals, and policy makers. The deadline
for comments is November 6, 1998.
The Council's call for input came as it presented its interim
report,"Connecting for Better Health: Strategic Issues", to Health Minister
Allan Rock. In accepting the report, Mr. Rock stated, "The Prime Minister
has supported a National Report Card on our health care system. A national
health information network is key to regular reporting to Canadians on
their health and their health system. We are looking to the
Council and to all Canadians to help us achieve this objective."
It is the Advisory Council's view that information and communications
technologies will provide essential tools for facilitating the integration
of health services across the Canadian health system," said Dr. Tom
Noseworthy, one of the Council's co-chairs. "The use of these technologies
in a Canadian health
infostructure will contribute significantly to strengthening and
modernizing Canada's health system."
"We need to integrate health care delivery to meet the needs of people, to
make the system more responsible and more responsive to Canadians, so that
they can participate in decisions regarding their health and the
effectiveness of the health care system," said Minister Rock. "We must
harness information technology to create a coherent,
seamless system, one that will collect, integrate, and provide reliable
and consistent information -- from clinical decisions to laboratory
research, from policy development to disease
prevention, and from hospital management to quality control. This, I
believe, will contribute to more responsible decision making by all those
involved in health care."
According to the interim report, information is increasingly becoming a
powerful resource, and has the potential to have a positive impact on the
delivery of health care services and on the health and
well-being of Canadians. Until recently, extensive health information
has been available
mainly to a limited number of decision makers within the health sector.
The new information and communications technologies used in a health
infostructure, offer the promise of significant change.
For example, a Canadian health infostructure could:
- provide reliable health information useful to Canadians as health
consumers, care givers, and active participants in the health system;
- ensure equitable access to health information;
- link diverse health services into an integrated whole between
institutions and homes, within communities, between urban and rural
areas, or interprovincially; and
- support better health policy formulation and analysis by compiling
solid empirical information relating to policy scenarios or their impacts
on populations.
The Advisory Council on Health Info-structure was established in 1997 to
provide strategic advice and recommendations to the Federal Minister of
Health, and to contribute to the development of a national
strategy toward a Canadian health infostructure. The Advisory Council is
made up of representatives from health professions,
academia, health organizations, First Nations, the private sector, the
general public, and the federal government.
The co-chairs of the Advisory Council are Dr. Tom Noseworthy, Professor
and Chair, Public Health Sciences at the University of Alberta and Mr.
Alan Nymark, Associate Deputy Minister, Health Canada. A list
of Council members and their biographies is available on the Office of
Health and the Information Highway's Web site at
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ohih-bsi.
Canadians who are interested in the issues presented in this report, are
invited
to submit their comments by November 6, 1998, to the Advisory Council via
the Office of Health and the Information Highway (OHIH), by fax at (613)
952-3226, via e-mail at [log in to unmask], or at
the address listed below.
The postal address for the OHIH is:
Office of Health and the Information Highway
Health Canada
Holland Cross, Tower A, 2nd Floor
11 Holland Avenue
Postal Locator 3002A2
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0K9
Highlights of the report and the complete report are
available from the OHIH
web site at: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ohih-bsi.
Print copies of the report can also be obtained from:
Health Canada Publications
Brooke Claxton Building
Address Locator 0913A
Ottawa ON K1A 0K9
Tel: (613) 954-5995
Fax: (613) 941-5366
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Madeline Boscoe
Women's Health Clinic
3rd floor - 419 Graham Ave
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3C OM3
Phone: 204- 947-1517 Fax: 204-943-3844
www.pangea.ca/whc [log in to unmask]
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