Canadian health care is facing a perfect storm of challenges. Reduced health services and the struggle to train and retain health professionals will become a chronic problem if not urgently addressed.
Dr. Catherine Burns is the Chair in Human Factors in Health Care Systems and leads the University of Waterloo’s health initiatives. She discusses how we can redesign our health systems using advanced health-care technologies to create better patient outcomes and more equitable access to care.
Many health technologies, such as virtual care, point-of-care diagnostics, remote patient monitoring and assisted living devices are already here and present a significant opportunity to relieve health service backlogs and improve patient care.
Our focus needs to be on investment and collaboration so that health technologies can be implemented for real-world impact. When the tech community works closely with health-care providers — listening and adapting to their needs — health innovation leads the way.
The path forward is not without challenges, but we can have a future where technology empowers our health professionals and patients.
Go to Canada needs a health-care transformation for the full story.