Objectives: To explore the implementation of a provincial virtual paediatric consulting service, Child Health Advice in Real-Time Electronically (CHARLiE), integrated into the paediatric on-call schedule in Northwestern British Columbia.
Methods: Healthcare providers in Northwestern British Columbia responded to a survey (n = 72) and participated in focus groups (n = 35) and key informant interviews (n = 4) to share their experiences engaging in a healthcare model that incorporated virtual paediatric consultants in lieu of in-person local paediatrician coverage over a 28-month period. Survey data was analyzed using descriptive statistics.
The healthcare crisis across unceded First Nations' territories in rural, remote and Indigenous communities in British Columbia (BC) is marked by persistent barriers to accessing care and support close to home. This commentary describes an exceptional story of how technology, trusted partnerships and relationships came together to create an innovative suite of virtual care programs called "Real-Time Virtual Support" (RTVS). We describe key approaches, learnings and future considerations to improve the equity of healthcare delivery for rural, remote and First Nations communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: British Columbia has over 200 rural, remote, and Indigenous communities that have limited health care resources due to physician isolation, sparsity in clinical resources, the lack of collegial support, and provider burnout. Real-time virtual support (RTVS) peer-to-peer pathways provide support to patients and providers. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating existing health care disparities and equitable access to timely care, RTVS presents a portable and additional opportunity to be deployed in a hospital or patient home setting in rural communities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealthc Manage Forum
September 2023
Objective: To contrast how Brazil's and Canada's different jurisdictional and judicial realities have led to different types of telemedicine and how further scale and improvement can be achieved.
Composition Of The Committee: A subgroup of the Besrour Centre of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and Canadian telemedicine experts developed connections with colleagues in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and collaborated to undertake a between-country comparison of their respective telemedicine programs.
Methods: Following a literature review, the authors collectively reflected on their experiences in an attempt to explore the past and current state of telemedicine in Canada and Brazil.
We believe cellphone text messages are commonly used in medical practice whether in rural or urban settings and that clinical photos are often attached to them. Our interest is the use of this technology to provide dermatology service to rural and remote British Columbia. Concern has been expressed about the security of confidential information and adequacy of privacy protection in such an application.
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