By next year, a heart patient in Thunder Bay can have their diagnostic testing accessed by a physician in Ottawa with just the click of a mouse.
That’s just one of the benefits of the Northern and Eastern Diagnostic Imaging Network, a $41.7 million project that will link over 60 hospitals across the province. X-rays, CT scans MRIs and other diagnostic testing will be uploaded to a repository that physicians and clinicians at those hospitals can instantly access said Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre Chief Information Officer Bruce Sutton.
Sutton said Northwestern Ontario already has that capability for 12 of the region’s 13 hospitals through their Picture Archiving Communication Systems but currently if a patient needed to be assessed by a physician in Ottawa for example, they would have to physically ship the images by CD to the doctor. The NEODIN will change that said Sutton.
"What this project does is take that one step further and allows us to share those images broader," Sutton said.
Sutton said the large price tag is the result of the amount of equipment involved, the abundance of wire to connect it all and the 12 staff needed to put it all together. The amount of space required is also staggering. At TBRHSC alone, over 300,000 exams are done every year. A CT scan or MRI requires up to 1,250 images per exam Sutton said.
The project is funded with $20 million from the province and $21.7 million from Canada Health Infoway. Sutton said one day every hospital in the province will be able to share diagnostic tests.
"The intent is over the next few years to tie all four of those together so that an image taken anywhere in the province of Ontario can be viewed anywhere in the province of Ontario," Sutton said.
