by medicaltechont | Mar 31, 2010 | Uncategorized
The Liberal government has quietly scrapped a mandatory review of a new health bureaucracy.
Premier Dalton McGuinty says the legislative review, which was to have taken place by the end of March, was dropped because Ontario’s 14 Local Health Integration Networks (or LHINs) are not yet fully operational. The LHINs took effect on April 1, 2007.
“As it turns out, all of the responsibilities that we wanted the LHINs to take on, they have yet to take on,” he told the legislature.
“In particular, a big part of their new responsibilities would be long-term care (and they) have not yet done that.”
Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak said the review was much needed in light of a recent spending scandal at eHealth Ontario. Millions in untendered contracts were handed out at that agency, which was criticized as the worst-managed agency Auditor General Jim McCarter had ever seen.
Hudak contends health bureaucrats at various LHINs have handed out at least $7 million in untendered contracts. “I suspect Dalton McGuinty’s motivation is clear,” he said. “He does not want to have any more scrutiny of the growing rot at his LHINs, which resembles very much the kind of scandalous spending we saw at eHealth.”
The province designed LHINs to enable better local health planning and more local freedom in distributing health dollars to the neediest recipients. Ottawa is part of the Champlain LHIN, which co-ordinates and funds hospitals, community care access centres, addictions and mental health agencies, community support services, community health centres and long-term care homes across eastern Ontario. It is headed by Dr. Robert Cushman.
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by medicaltechont | Apr 24, 2008 | Technology, Uncategorized
Dr. James Swan has transformed Rouge Valley Cardiology into an almost totally digital operation. In northeastern Scarborough, far from the bustle of downtown Toronto, a cardiology clinic has been doing pioneering work in software and image management for the past six years.
read more | digg story
by medicaltechont | Apr 7, 2008 | Uncategorized
Engineering techniques can be used to eliminate inefficiencies in Canada’s health care system, as the work by a new Toronto research centre shows. In the modern race to innovate, the health care industry is lagging decades behind manufacturing and other service industries. Michael Carter is ready to launch a game of catch-up.
As head of the new Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering at the University of Toronto, Dr. Carter’s job seems simple on paper, but a lot tougher to execute: Replace the isolated elements of the system with a more efficient, productive health care system that gets everyone pulling in the same direction and makes the best use of limited resources.
“Every time I go into a hospital, I’m looking at it with a different eye,” Dr. Carter says. “Everywhere I look I see opportunities for improving efficiency. … It’s not just cutting costs. It’s really important to have the system set up properly.”
read more | digg story
by medicaltechont | Apr 4, 2008 | Uncategorized
You know, we should have paid a little closer attention to Microsoft’s decision yesterday to extend Windows XP sales to “June 2010 or one year after the general availability of Windows 7” — if the company was really planning on shipping Windows 7 in 2010, that first date doesn’t make a lot of sense unless the plan is to ship Windows 7 much, much earlier. And hey — what’s Bill Gates doing telling investors this afternoon that Windows 7 will come “in the next year” and that he’s “super-enthused” about it? As far as we know, the official Windows 7 timeline hasn’t changed, so Bill might just talking about beta versions, but something’s clearly up Windows-wise in Redmond — perhaps Vista’s wow is not long for this now.
read more | digg story
by medicaltechont | Mar 30, 2008 | Uncategorized
GE Healthcare, the global leader in healthcare technology, continually strives to re-invent and re-imagine its product portfolio. Some of its latest innovations are on display this week at the 57th annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago.
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