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Written by Stewart Stein
on April 14, 2014
There has been such tremendous feedback from the Primary Care community about Telederm. I don’t have all the data back from the recent satisfaction survey, but preliminary results indicate that service is highly valued.
It is likely that your colleagues at other Family Health Teams (FHTs) would be most interested in your Telederm experience and to that end I would encourage you to submit an abstract for the 2014 Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO) Conference.
While more than 270 FHTs and 1,000+ family physicians across Ontario use the Telederm program, there are many more who still need to hear about how they can get a derm consult for their patients in 5 days... | |
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Written by Allan Zahara
on March 31, 2014
Ontario’s aging population presents major challenges to our healthcare system. Among these is a growing knowledge gap on how to properly care for the province's elders.
Caregivers today face complex and challenging issues, often with limited training and support. They may battle complications associated with dementia, frailty, falls, drug interactions and more. In Living Longer, Living Well, a report to inform the Ontario Seniors Strategy, Dr. Samir Sinha, provincial lead, Ontario Seniors Strategy, addresses the need for us to support a skilled health, social, and community care workforce.
“Our... | |
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Written by Rob Williams
on March 6, 2014
The future of virtual care is mHealth – incorporating mobile devices into the delivery of virtual services. Recently, I wrote about how OTN is offering Personal Videoconferencing on a personal computer, so you don’t need to go to a room-based studio with a codec and a camera. Instead, you can download software onto a personal computer, and conduct the consultation over that device via the internet with other endpoints, whether it’s a Personal Videoconferencing device or a room-based studio. Eventually this functionality will be extended to any mobile device – tablet or... | |
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Written by Stewart Stein
on February 20, 2014
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Photo by cbgrfx123
I don’t know about you but sometimes I have a hard time conceptualizing large numbers. We’re always hearing statistics reported in the news… a few million here or a couple of billion there. I’m challenged just guessing how many jelly beans are in the jar.
If, like me, you can use a little help wrapping your mind around the difference between a million and a billion, here’s something that can help: a million seconds translates into about 11 days. A billion seconds translates into about 32 years. That’s a big difference when it comes to beans.
The reason I mention this is... |
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Written by Rob Williams
on February 4, 2014
Ontario’s newest innovation in virtual care continues OTN’s leadership in the field. Finally, technology has been developed that facilitates care delivery through the Internet, on PCs or laptops, with sharp clear images and little transmission delay.
OTN CEO Dr. Ed Brown on Personal Video Conferencing.
Sign up for Personal Videoconferencing.
Any member of the Ontario healthcare community can apply to use OTN’s Personal Videoconferencing service. Specialists, whose expertise may be unavailable in communities across Ontario, can now provide care in real-time from their home or office, thereby extending the reach of their practice. Travel time for the consultant... | |
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Written by Stewart Stein
on January 17, 2014
 | After more than 11,000 dermatology consults, Otn.teledermSF received a facelift on December 20th, 2013. The user interface is quite similar to the previous version so users shouldn’t find it to be too much of an adjustment.
Here is a summary of the changes and instructions on how to use the new features. If you have any questions or comments, please contact the OTN Customer Care Centre at 1-855-654-0888.
Old version appearance
New version appearance
Highlights
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Written by Rob Williams
on January 8, 2014
OTN was established in 1997 with the vision that telemedicine will be a mainstream channel for healthcare delivery and education. There were several barriers initially including startup costs, a compelling business case, a process for scheduling events, paying doctors, and overcoming health care professionals’ (HCP) resistance to using the technologies. A business and operational strategy was developed, always keeping in mind the need to be as easy and convenient to use as face-to-face encounters.
OTN currently has four channels of virtual care:
Elective Virtual Ambulatory Care: Last year OTN supported over 300,000 provider/patient real-time video consultations in over 40 specialty services. The top 5 therapeutic... | |
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Written by Allan Zahara
on December 13, 2013
 | OTN Member organizations who take full advantage of their Videoconference Studios know they have a Golden Goose on their hands. The travel cost and productivity savings of videoconferencing can be very significant – and OTN’s Cost Savings Calculator shows you how.
If your staff are in the habit of getting in a car to drive to a regional meeting or an education event, they are incurring costs that can often be eliminated while taking advantage of the rich interactive experience of videoconferencing. Here’s how:
Travel Costs... |
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Written by Rob Williams
on December 4, 2013
Telehomecare is focused on supporting patients with long-term chronic diseases. As our population ages, more and more people are living with chronic diseases, which means they’ll be seeing physicians more and going to the hospital more. This results in higher costs for the healthcare system. So the healthcare system is looking for ways of supporting these people to live optimally with their chronic disease, and to minimize the need for them to engage with the healthcare system. The Telehomecare program is a way of helping people understand their illness better, and to self-manage their chronic disease without the need for interacting with the healthcare system.
A Telehomecare... | |
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Written by Stewart Stein
on November 26, 2013
One consistent piece of advice we always hear from users of OTN services is this… “Make it simple”. Making things simple is, well, hard! For example, it would be ideal if Otn.teledermSF, OTN’s store forward dermatology program, could be integrated with EMRs so that data could automatically pre-populate the required fields. With at least 15 popular EMRs in use in the province, the task of integration is challenging (and expensive). OTN, however, is certainly looking at ways to do this.
One simplification we have been able to apply is the elimination of the need to use VPN for Telederm. Effective immediately, users of Otn.teledermSF no longer need to login via... | |
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