by Glenn Taylor
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Oct 24/97) - New technologies are about to revolutionize the way Inuvik Regional Hospital delivers service to its clients.

Take X-rays, for example. Currently, X-ray images at the local hospital are stuffed into an envelope and flown south for interpretation. By next year, that will look very old-fashioned, indeed.

A pilot project now under way will link Inuvik and Fort Smith hospitals with Yellowknife's Stanton Hospital by 1998. By this time next year, detailed X-rays will be transmitted digitally for analysis in Yellowknife, according to Inuvik CEO Frank Russell.

"That means we could send an image, and have an interpreter in Yellowknife call us back in a couple of minutes with a diagnosis," said Russell. "That's much faster than the few days it takes now, waiting for results from Vancouver."

Bell Northern Research is conducting the project, which will expand the hospital's data-carrying capabilities from low bandwidth to medium bandwidth. That means that an X-ray image that would take hours to send over conventional phone lines would instead take a few minutes, or even a few seconds, said Russell.

Physicians could then refer to these digital images from their desktop computer, to allow for speedier follow-up examinations of patients, he said.

"Teleradiology may allow even more timely interpretation of radiological images, give greater access to secondary consultations and improve continuing education," said David Hynes, chair of the Canadian Association of Radiologists.

Another new development under way is the Wellcom System, a computerized form of patient tracking that is expected to be installed territory-wide by next year. (Norman Wells will first test the system.)

A patient's complete medical history would be available to all hospitals in the North over a secure network. "This would mean that a man from Rankin Inlet could walk into our hospital, and we could then simply call up his file on the computer," said Russell.

"All the patient would need to do is give their name, health-care number and date of birth, and the system would do the rest."

Compare that with the current system. If the same man checked into Inuvik today, doctors here would have to contact Rankin Inlet by phone, and have the records faxed or communicated in some other form, a time-consuming process, said Russell.

Other recent developments, such as e-mail and videoconferencing, are also changing the face of hospital care. "E-mail has just exploded the last two or three years," said Russell. "I'm no longer playing telephone tag" with staff.

Videoconferencing was installed at the Inuvialuit Corporate Centre last year. This week, Russell will "meet" with members of a Vancouver company hard at work developing plans for Inuvik's new hospital.

Nurses and physicians in southern Canada are also relying more heavily on the Internet in helping diagnose patients, and for research purposes. Few doctors are using the Internet locally for these purposes, but that is expected to change over the next few years, said Russell.