Tracy Kovalench
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jul 01/98) - Members of the Stanton Regional Health Board invited their counterparts in Inuvik and Fort Smith to a meeting in Yellowknife last week.

Travel to the city was unnecessary however, thanks to the Western NWT Health Network Project.

"Westnet" is a pilot project focusing on the immediate exchange of health care information via a computerized communication system.

With the aid of audio, video and data-scanning technology, patients in Inuvik or Fort Smith will pay virtual visits to orthopedic and internal medicine specialists located in Yellowknife over the next year.

The experiment will be monitored in areas such as function, cost, service, maintenance and acceptance.

If "telehealth" proves successful, similar systems will likely be popping up across the territories, says Ed Norwich, the GNWT's manager of information systems.

The project is a joint venture between the Stanton, Inuvik and Fort Smith health boards in partnership with the GNWT, ARDICOM and Computing Devices Canada.

Norwich says national projects are currently under way in hopes of improving health-care services to Canadians in rural and remote areas.

In addition to diagnosing patients from the comfort of their own communities, the system will also provide a direct link between rural medical practitioners and large information hubs.

Using a simultaneous three-way connection between systems in board rooms in each of the communities, project directors demonstrated a few of its capabilities during opening ceremonies Wednesday afternoon.