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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A mental health pilot program scheduled to launch this fall at Stanton Territorial Hospital may take some pressure off the territory's struggle to improve the state of its mental health care system.

"We're just working on designing the system, but it's supposed to come into fruition over the next few months," said Dr. Ewan Affleck, a general practitioner in Yellowknife and a driving force behind medical technology development in the territory. "We are going to start with two communities initially, and then it will be expanded depending on how successful it is."

The two communities selected were not revealed as of press deadline. The project will use teleconferencing technology and electronic medical record (EMR) systems to connect patients with physicians who may be in Yellowknife or at Stanton's partner facility in the project, Dalhousie University in Halifax. The system will allow patients to access expertise that may not be otherwise available and would also allow physicians to provide follow-up care even when personal visits may not be possible or practical. The EMR system would allow relevant caregivers to access a patient's information, order lab tests and write prescriptions from across the country.

Affleck's involvement in the project is through his work on developing the EMR network in the NWT.

"This is what I call 'networked health'," he said. "We can create virtual teams of people that can hopefully bring the care to where the patient is. We will still have to move people if it's clinically merited, but we've sort of been stuck moving them because we've had no other way to communicate and that has caused delays in care and arguably it's poorer care and it drives massive costs."

Affleck used the mental health program as an example of how technology can improve the care available to patients during his presentation at the Canadian Medical Association annual meeting earlier this week. This year's meeting focused on how social and environmental factors can affect a person's health and affect their ability to access quality health care.

Affleck's presentation showcased one of the ways NWT physicians have already been addressing the obstacles around health care accessibility and have been developing initiatives that maximize thinly-spread resources in the territory.

"If there was ever a nice, tight, closed loop between determinants of health and the health of people, in particular aboriginal people, it's here," said Dr. Bob Woollard, head of the University of British Columbia's Department of Family Practice and co-writer of a paper on social determinants of health released during the conference. "So I think Yellowknife was an inspired place to have (the meeting). "

One of the most frequently emphasized messages throughout the meeting was that communication and teamwork among caregivers is the best way to share expertise and knowledge and ultimately improve health care available to patients. Affleck emphasized that any technological system depends on quality relationships between caregivers and help their patients.

"It's ultimately using this technology to build the team because the technology on its own ... it's useless," said Affleck. "You need the team and the team needs a highway to move the information down and that's the technical issue ... Technology is just an enabler. If you don't have the people or the relationships to do it, technology is worth nothing."

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