Category: analysis
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Google Health – A sign of things to come?
An interesting little post on Arstechnica.com reports about the possibility of a new service from Google focused on health. This new service is to be called “Google Health” in line with Googles naming convention for services (e.g., Google Maps, Google Scholar, etc). What I find interesting about this speculative posting is the increasing interest from…
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Ehealth in the news – EHRs profiled in Canadian Business magazine
I came across an interesting little article in a recent issue of Canadian Business magazine (Feb. 13-26, 2006) written by Erin Pooley titled, “Health’s digital divide: Electronic health recordsâ€. The article caught my eye because it was included in a special theme issue on media and the forthcoming digital transformation. Medicine/health was one of the…
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Blanket WiFi access in Toronto
This week, Toronto Hydro Telecom announced plans to create a high-speed wireless zone beginning in the downtown core. Touted as being a means of bringing “Toronto on to the world stage”, the service will be free for the first six months. A few colleagues have suggested that this development may be a significant step toward…
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ehealth and a challenge of sharing information
Recently, I accompanied my mom to the local hospital. A few days ago, my mom fell during an ice storm and broke her wrist. Luckily, she was able to see the orthopaedic surgeon at the fracture clinic to rule out any complications. This particular hospital has a very interesting set-up. There are computer carts located…
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ehealth, specialists, and strategy
Sometimes I wonder if the strategy for developing and deploying ehealth/health inforamtics is effective. In Ontario, and probably in many parts of Canada, the government has developed a series of massive infrastructure projects to create a functional electronic health record. What this means is that there are multi-million dollar projects to design, develop, test, and…
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e is for … evaluation?
This year’s e-health conference is titled “e is for everyone” but I want to focus on another “e”: evaluation. I have heard a few people suggest that the next “big thing” in ehealth is evaluation. I’m not sure if I agree or disagree with this prediction. Up until recently, much of the effort in health…
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space and place in an e-health world
I’ve often stated that we need to explore and understand some of the consequences of adopting and using more ehealth. By consequences, I don’t necessarily mean negative effects. In his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman articulates some of the (unintended) consequences of using the television.…
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elections & ehealth
Here in Canada, a national election is scheduled for Monday January 23, 2006. This particular election has been interesting because the major political parties seem to be running an issues-based campaign, passing on much of the negative advertisements and personal attacks of past elections. I’m not sure if this new-found civility will keep-up, but I…