Paul Brent - Medical research indicates that young people spend far too much "screen" time and not enough "activity" time. Hours are spent in front of TV's, cell phones, video game consoles or computers and this is contributing to an obesity epidemic. The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario is one of the primary partners in producing an annual report card on physical activity for Canada's youth. The 5th report is due next week and is expected to again paint a picture of too many inactive children. The report also points out in our hyper-regulated society too many rules restrict activities like road hockey or roller blading. We tell children to be active and then restrict where they can be active.
While too much "screen" time isn't good for children the hospital recognizes the realities of modern life. They have game consoles and TV's and this month CHEO became the first Ottawa hospital to offer www.popolis.com . It's a social networking site for patients, allowing them to stay in touch with friends and family, to play games, even to keep up on home work.
Like any hospital CHEO has the technology that is now so crucial to health care and money from this weekend's telethon on CTV Ottawa will help to update some of that equipment. Nearly a year ago Tyson Roffey became the first-ever Chief Information Officer at CHEO. He believes that tech in health care is all about "putting the right information in front of the right people at the right time with the right tools." He points to the expanding use of CHEO as a resource for other hospitals. Tele-medicine techniques and the web help CHEO help others, be it Ottawa valley hospitals or doctors in Nunavut. From tele-psychiatry to posting tools like drug dose calculators on special web portals Roffey says it's all about "moving care closer to home." The hospital is testing a wireless system which analyses patient data and can alert nurses to patient problems.
The emergency unit is now taking patient information and starting to put it on an electronic platform. Within a year Roffey hopes that e-health files will handle data from every department and that it will all be accessible and protected.
Web site of the week: www.cheofoundation.com
Information on the hospital's fundraising efforts including the CHEO telethon.
