The potential benefits are terrific. Most importantly, the immediate benefit to the patient is in getting a speedy diagnosis. As well, nurses would no longer be dependent on long-distance telephone calls to doctors for advice on medical emergencies. The system would provide a direct link to major medical centres and databases.

There would be considerable savings. No longer would the taxpayer be on the hook for medevacs from the communities to hospitals in either Yellowknife or farther afield.

At a time when budgets are feeling the pressure from reduced government spending this comes as welcome news. Anything that advances the distribution of health-care services without throwing the taxpayer further in debt sounds like progress.

As the North, and particularly the Western Arctic, moves towards community-based government, prudent management of health-care budgets is going to become a priority. Affordable systems that optimize a community's ability to take advantage of medical resources will go a long way towards making community empowerment viable.

As all this medical information races back and forth across the telephone lines, all that remains to be seen is the bedside manner of NorthwesTel.

Among the more welcome additions to the Yellowknife cultural scene each summer is the ever-growing mural on the Franklin Avenue side of Canadian Tire.

Dawn Oman's work is the perfect antidote to the brick-and-mortar and the aluminum dreariness that covers much of the downtown. Our only fear is she is rapidly running out of wall.