N.O.R.T.H. NETWORK

Tele-medicine Comes to the Kirkland and District Hospital

Patients in the Cochrane and Timiskaming Districts have the option of "visiting" a specialist via two way video in this Tele-Health Project.

As partners in the N.O.R.T.H. Network, Lady Minto Hospital and the Kirkland and District Hospital will link up with the Timmins and District Hospital and the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto , for a two year trial period which will help pave the way for a province wide tele-health network.

With the first consultation scheduled for the end of March, the N.O.R.T.H. Network will not only provide a wide variety of specialty consultations, such as orthopedics, dermatology, surgery, psychiatry, geriatric and diagnostic imaging and support consultations for physiotherapy, speech therapy, etc, but will also transmit continuing medical education (CME) sessions to health professionals as well as patient education.

Tele-health, often referred to as Tele-medicine has proven exceptionally useful in rural and remote communities. The main benefits include improved access to specialty care, reduction of travel time for patients, and decreased transfers and hospitalization.

The bulk of funding of 2.1 million dollars for this project is coming from the Ministry of Economic Development and the Telecommunications Access Partnership Program (TAP). The N.O.R.T.H. Network is a partnership between the broader public sector and private industry. Our location for the equipment at the Kirkland and District Hospital will be in the Boardroom, Dr. Paul Garner is the Medical Director of this project and An Weiler is the Clinical Coordinator.

Visit the Northern Ontario Remote Communication Health Network