New pilot program promises to revolutionize diagnostic healthcare in the remote North, but will Ottawa pay?
A gathering of First Nation health directors witnessed a demonstration on Thursday of how healthcare delivery in the North could be transformed.
Tuula Nikkanen, a doctor in Finland who developed the technology, virtually monitored devices on a volunteer at the gathering in Thunder Bay. The volunteer had their oxygen levels, blood pressure and virtual stethoscope readings of their lungs and heart checked in real time despite the distance across an ocean.
The demonstration was led by 73Health, a remote health diagnostic solution first pioneered in Finland to treat the Indigenous Saami communities and travelling workers in the country’s north. Doctors only visited the town of Ivalo, for example, one day every five weeks. Now, there are doctor appointments daily using 73Health’s technology, Nikkanen told health directors for CanadianFirst Nations at the demonstration.
