September 1, 2010 (Ottawa, ON) - Physicians at Hôpital Montfort and Bruyère Continuing Care are now easily accessing and sharing medical imaging test results with other hospitals connected to the Northern and Eastern Ontario Diagnostic Imaging Network (NEODIN), an electronic repository for medical imaging that connects more than 60 diagnostic imaging departments in northern and eastern Ontario.
NEODIN will improve health care delivery by providing doctors with access to diagnostic images from all hospitals connected to the network, providing them with a more comprehensive view of a patient's diagnostic history. "The diagnostic imaging repository eliminates the need for patients to transport images and reports between doctors on CD or film," says Bernard Leduc, CEO of Hôpital Montfort. "It will also help eliminate duplicate testing and unnecessary travel between hospitals resulting from lost, misplaced or otherwise unavailable images."
Ultimately, NEODIN will connect a large portion of Ontario. When completed in 2011, more than 60 diagnostic imaging departments from the North West, North East and Champlain LHINs, servicing almost two million people across 840,000 square kilometres from the Manitoba border in the west to Cornwall and Hawkesbury in the east, will be able to seamlessly share patient images and reports.
NEODIN is one of four imaging repositories in Ontario being funded by Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and eHealth Ontario. Infoway has provided $21.7 million and eHealth Ontario has provided $20 million in funding to support the project, which is part of the Ontario government's ehealth agenda and supports Infoway's vision for a pan-Canadian electronic health record system.
"We are proud to provide the network and be a funding partner on an initiative which advances health care delivery and benefits to Ontarians," said Greg Reed, President and CEO, eHealth Ontario. "This project illustrates how collaboration within the health care system can improve patient care."
"Investments like this one in Hôpital Montfort and the Bruyère Continuing Care are dramatically improving access to patient images and reports," says Richard Alvarez, President and CEO of Canada Health Infoway. "NEODIN allows specialists to access images from any point in the network at anytime. Already, patients are getting treated sooner and closer to home."
The Hôpital Montfort's recent infrastructure updates have dubbed it the largest Franco-Ontarian capital investment project in history. Since project inception in 2005, Montfort has expanded to dramatically increase its patient capacity with 289 acute care beds. By joining NEODIN, Montfort ensures that its new patient information needs will be up-to-date as well.
Bruyère Continuing Care is the first continuing care facility in the Ottawa Valley connected to the diagnostic imaging network. Bruyère Continuing Care is part of the Champlain Region Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), which has a population of 1,176,600 people.
Canada Health Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government. Infoway jointly invests with every province and territory to accelerate the development and adoption of electronic health record projects in Canada.
eHealth Ontario is the organization responsible for implementing the government's ehealth agenda and creating an electronic health record for all Ontarians by 2015.
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For More Information:
Michel Tremblay
Conseiller principal au PDG / Senior Advisor to the CEO Hôpital Montfort
Tel.: (613) 746-4621 poste/ext. 2000
Heather Phillips
Clinical and Change Management Lead
NEODIN
Tel.: (416) 988-0580
Heather Brown
Communications Advisor
eHealth Ontario
Tel.: (416) 586-4238
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