My perspective - Health care of tomorrow

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Published on Friday, September 2, 2016

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson

The Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Today, from the phone in my pocket, I can do lots of things.  I can pay bills, order food or watch videos. I can track my own health through any number of health apps, but what I can’t do is use it to access my actual health data. In such a data-driven world, this seems entirely out of place. But maybe not for long.

Last week, federal Health minister Jane Philpott, who was a family doctor in Stouffville, ON before entering politics, spoke to the Canadian Medical Association at their annual meeting in Vancouver. With negotiations between the federal and provincial governments over the new Health Accord ongoing, Philpott’s words were heard with great interest. 

When it comes to health spending, governments are always facing a great chasm separating what we want them to spend and what money is available. The health of ourselves and our families is a deeply personal and highly emotional topic. Talking restraint is easy, until it’s your grandparent in the hospital bed.

Philpott didn’t promise more money for the provinces, nor did she offer strong support for some of the CMA’s most pressing issues, such as funding top-ups for provinces with older populations or a national pharmacare plan.

Based on Philpott’s remarks, the federal government is viewing the current Health Accord negotiations as a time to set a new course to improve Canada’s health care outcomes. She said the negotiations are a chance to “trigger” the innovation needed to reform the system.

With ballooning federal health care costs, Philpott is pushing for a change in the way care is delivered, with a stronger focus on co-ordination of care. She noted that co-ordination is a major factor explaining why both Britain and Australia spend less per capita and as a percentage of GDP, yet obtain better outcomes.

This makes a lot of sense. Anyone who has had interactions with multiple doctors knows that generally, we operate in a fractured state. It seems there’s room for solutions that revolve around better managing the interactions between patients and all of their health care providers– collaboration between family doctors and specialists and the increased use of digital technology to keep records that can be shared among health care providers and are accessible by patients. With this in mind, we know one thing, one of the big areas of federal focus will be modernizing this type of infrastructure.  

After years of spending on exciting new equipment, patients’ health information has been left in the dark ages. While some clinics and hospitals have been working towards the digitization of records, fax machines are still common in doctors’ offices across the county. While many Americans can get their test results via a phone app, few Canadians can access any of their health information online. A new system in Nova Scotia, announced in July, has made a step forward; it will allow patients to access their test results by phone. By making health information readily available to Canadians, Philpott said patients will be better able to actively manage their health. 

It’s clear that there are problems, but it’s also clear that throwing money at the problem won’t solve it. We need only look at rapidly rising health care budgets, both provincially and federally, to see we have already tried this.

Health care funding is a tricky subject. We could double our health care spending and still not improve the outcomes for all Canadians. As with any endeavour, we need to ensure we are using our resources as efficiently as possible and there’s room for improvement. Why do patients have records in multiple places? Are tests performed multiple times because previous tests results aren’t easily accessible? Are patients even getting their test results? Can we better coordinate our resources, both human and capital, so that they are used to their full potential? We all want to see more doctors, more nurses, more aides and more techs, but we should also make sure the foundation upon which our health care rests, our own health information, is as solid as possible.