Overview of the Newfoundland and Labrador Healthline program

Presented by by Joy Stuckless, Project Manager, Selfcare/Telecare, Dept of Health and Community Services and Marleen Penney, Director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Healthline.

Healthline is one component of Newfoundland’s Telehealth Plan, which is part of a regional partnership with New Brunswick being the lead province. The intent is to provide a toll-free, 24-hour, 7-day, teletriage and health information service across the Atlantic provinces in both official languages. Joy described the history of the project, the timelines and political linkages. Marleen then described the actual service, which is run by Clinidata, outlined the software and clinical guidelines/protocols used, and then provided statistics on usage within this province.

Health Statistics and Research

Presented by by Don MacDonald, Research and Evaluation Dept., Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information.

Don started out by defining Statistics as a number and Research as adding value to the number. He set out NLCHI’s mandate as a clearinghouse for timely quality information, and outlined the structure of the Centre. Then he spoke specifically about the Research and Evaluation Department, outlining what data is collected about residents of Newfoundland and Labrador and the discrepancies and shortcomings of the data, from Zombies to Funeral Directors. He then explained how a person can access the data, the various publications that are available and other ways they disseminate information, and the applied health research in which they are involved.

Electronic Health Record

Presented by Tom King, Project Manager, Electronic Health Record, Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information.

Initially EHR was a part of the Eastern Health Authority, but in 2006 it became a Crown Agency. The intention is to create a secure and private lifetime record of an individual’s health and care history, to be available electronically to authorized health providers. This will facilitate the sharing of data. The EHR Mandate is to have implemented all components by March 31, 2011. Tom reviewed the Health IT history of the province, beginning with the first Meditech system in 1984, and described the various systems that were unable to communicate with one another. He discussed to role of the Canada Health Infoway in this project, as well as the relationships with Telehealth and the Health Information Network.