Technology and Innovation

The focus of the Ontario Telemedicine Network is to provide a full range of clinical consultation services including cardiac care, pediatrics, dermatology, endocrinology, neurology, thrombosis, and psychiatry to name a few. These services are achieved through the application of telecommunications technology. In our community, the network connects doctors in Ottawa with patients at Pembroke Regional Hospital, and it connects doctors from our hospital with patients in Barry’s Bay, Deep River, and Renfrew. Telemedicine brings specialty healthcare services closer to home.

PACS is a computer system that transmits and archives digitally captured images, including x-rays, ultrasounds and images from CT. These images can be viewed and manipulated on any monitor connected to a department, facility, or regional network including other healthcare facilities or physicians’ offices.

The Northern and Eastern Ontario Diagnostic Imaging Network (NEODIN) which hosts the DI-r, which Pembroke Regional Hospital is now a part of, provides centralized storage for X-rays and other diagnostic

images including ultrasounds, CT scans, nuclear medicine scans and MRIs for the hospitals in Northern and Eastern Ontario. The shared imaging archive enables doctors in one hospital to access images and reports acquired at another hospital.

As of June, 2010, the NEODIN DI-r is storing images and reports for 13 imaging departments including eight in the Ottawa Valley, two in the North Bay area and three in and around Sault Saint Marie.

By mid 2011, NEODIN will connect more than 60 medical imaging departments in Ontario servicing almost two million people across 840,000 square kilometers.

The NEODIN DI-r is one of several eHealth projects being undertaken by the hospitals in the Ottawa area. A great deal of effort has been taken to ensure patient privacy is being maintained while enabling physicians and other care givers to access the information they need to provide exemplary care to their patients.