Last week on Coast Salish Territory in Vancouver, the Canadian Health Informatics Awards Gala shone its light on the innovators who are reimagining healthcare delivery in Canada. The First Nations Telehealth Expansion Project was proud and honoured to win one of the seven awards of the evening – the award for ‘Excellence in Canadian Telehealth’.
"This award is truly a celebration of the success of BC First Nations in developing and implementing access to health care services – services that are timely, efficient and culturally-safe," said Megan Hunt, former Director, eHealth, as she accepted the award on behalf of the whole team. "These telehealth services positively impact the health and wellbeing of our Nations."
By project completion in December 2015, the three year project was providing virtual health and education services to over 15,000 First Nations individuals living in remote communities. One hundred and twenty eight health care providers are now connected to and providing clinical care to 33 First Nations communities. A further 12 communities were enabled with educational telehealth equipment for administrative purposes and continuing education for a total of 45 communities across the province.
The Telehealth Team is a dedicated group of professionals with unique and complementary skills who have an in-depth understanding of the complex environments that this project touched. Over the course of the project, the team collectively logged over 100 trips to community and travelled over 375,000 kilometers by highway, logging road, airplane, seaplane, ferry and water taxi.