Elliott Fung, Integration Network director at the Waterloo- Wellington Local Healthcare Integration Network (LHIN) was our guest speaker. The LHIN is still fairly new, and is responsible for delivering patient-centred home care that is responsive, collaborative, transparent and flexible. Locally, they have a budget of about $1.1 billion, which is allocated to the hospital, related agencies and the LHIN itself. The local LHIN is available to serve the 750,000 residents. Elliott’s position is unique in that it is the only one in the network. His goal is to meet in local R&D companies in order to encourage them to develop and test products to be used in the network. For example, Speedy Glass promotes its app to advise how close a technician is to provide service. This should be able to be adapted to provide guidance as to where the PSW is and an estimated time of arrival. Elliott told the story of Kevin, who is 56, lives alone and receives support a couple of times a week. With technology, his PSW is able to monitor his condition remotely (one of 35 in a test situation). It was discovered that Kevin’s heart rate was exceeding 240. A preliminary call, followed by a visit, confirmed that this was a true reading, and treatment was provided. Without this monitoring the next scheduled visit might have been a day or two away, and Kevin would likely have died. With the technology, not only was Kevin saved, but more frequent visits were not required (the cost and other resources were saved). Elliott also relayed the story of Curiato, a local start up that has developed a Smart mattress that monitors heat and movement and actually adjusts its coils to ensure that there is movement to limit the development of bed sores. This not only reduces the pain the patient would otherwise develop, but also reduced the cost of remediating the sores. Not only is the product beneficial, but the manufacturing will actually be done in Waterloo. |