In just a few years, New Brunswick’s doctors will have access to official data on their patients from across the country, which is expected to make it easier to treat patients.
In just a few years, New Brunswick’s doctors will have access to official data on their patients from across the country, which is expected to make it easier to treat patients.
But more practical benefits can also be seen from the federally-funded initiative, called SAMI/TD, which stands for a health-care information system.
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The data itself is very basic, but it will become easier for New Brunswick doctors to share their patient health data — and in turn, physicians across the country will be able to access the data.
“It brings much more transparency to our system and we can use it as a platform for other forms of health-care support to be made available to other physicians,” said Dr. Seamus McKee, president of the New Brunswick Medical Association.
“When you look at other provinces and other Canadian cities, there is an issue there in terms of access. This will definitely address that in a better way.”
Though similar to a physical map showing the different districts of Canada, the Digital Health Index will take digital mapping of health care records into account.
That will give New Brunswick a glimpse into the complications and procedures that may be carried out in other provinces.
Once the system launches, McKee and other stakeholders can see if the benefits of integrated health care are worth the initial costs — time and money.
“It’s more an ability to go look at data and see what kinds of health policies that this was impacting,” he said.
He also noted that the initiative could encourage greater collaboration with Canadian health care institutions.
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“I think it’s absolutely a leap to get everybody to work together, but the information will also allow them to do that, I believe,” he said.
In order to take advantage of the measure, New Brunswick doctors will need to be members of the province’s health information exchange (HIE) when the system launches later this year.
It will then become mandatory for all provincial and territorial health authorities to adopt the system by 2021.
It’s a move that McKee said will make that source of data more valuable in the long run.
“We have all this data, but there’s no visibility into what’s going on in New Brunswick,” he said.
“We can work together and use these databases, work collaboratively and really see if we’re getting better at what we do and why our results look so different. That’s a really good sign.”
By demanding it, New Brunswick can have greater control over the money it spends on health care, he added.
“(It’s) better value for every dollar that’s spent.”