Iqaluit (June 30/03) - Faces from Cambridge Bay to Rankin Inlet flashed up on a small screen in the new tele-health room at Baffin Regional Hospital last week.

"Can you hear me?" health minister Ed Picco asked Angela Butt, who works at the hospital in Rankin Inlet.

When it's revealed that Butt hails from Fogo Island, NF., Picco peppers her with questions about home and how long she's lived in the North.

Despite the slight delay in the time a person speaks and when you actually hear and see them on the screen, the tele-health network makes you feel close to people in far flung places.

That is exactly the point. When a doctor cannot be there in person because weather or time and cost prohibits it, the next best thing in the North is often tele-health network.

First introduced in three Northern communities in 1999, the system added Cambridge Bay and Gjoa Haven in 2000.

Last week during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Baffin Regional Hospital, more hospitals were added to the network.

Now 15 communities in Nunavut are connected, including Arctic Bay, Arviat, Baker Lake, Cambridge Bay, Cape Dorset, Chesterfield Inlet, Grise Fiord, Gjoa Haven, Iglulik, Iqaluit, Kugluktuk, Pangnirtung, Pond Inlet, Rankin Inlet and Sanikiluaq.

Expansion of the network cost $7.4 million.

Picco stressed that tele-health is "not just about saving dollars," but about a valuable "inter-connect" between hospitals.

Someone with a rare skin infection in Pond Inlet was recently connected with a doctor in Iqaluit who could give them a proper diagnosis, and also comfort.

Tele-health also connects families who must be apart during surgery or long hospital visits. In the future, it will assist in offering educational health programs.

Because it's a video-based system, the service has its share of flaws.

"A far as technical difficulties, the worst thing that can happen is the call will drop," said Maegan Power at the health department in Iqaluit. "So you're disconnected. But our turn-around time for that is one to three minutes," she said.

Built into the system is a half-hour test prior to every tele-health session so technical problems can be worked out before the actual call.

Funding for 10 additional sites in Nunavut is being sought, said Power. That means the network will include Clyde River, Qikiqtarjuaq, Kimmirut, Hall Beach, Resolute, Coral Harbour, Whale Cove, Repulse Bay, Taloyoak and Pelly Bay.