Doctors and medical practitioners click together for kids

Every time a child in Ontario is admitted to an emergency room, discharged
from a hospital, administered a treatment or tested for any condition or
disease, an individual record is created. To obtain access to the results,
physicians have had to learn of the activity, request the file, and wait
for it to be mailed, faxed, or called in. Now, there is a new way for
health care providers to gain access to such vital results - via an
Ontario-wide fully integrated electronic health record system called the
electronic Child Health Network or eCHN.

"Before eCHN, I would wait days and weeks to have access to the
information," said Dr. Alan Hudak, former Chief of Paediatrics and
Neonatal Medicine, Orillia Solders' Memorial Hospital. "Using eCHN, I can
access each test and result with a click of a button as soon as the report
is filed."

The program reaches over 100 hospital sites including all Tertiary Care
Centres in Ontario as well as Community, Children's treatment and
independent Medical Centres. Independent paediatricans and family doctors
are also members of the system. eCHN contains the health records of more
than one million of Ontario's children. Health care providers on the
system have access to secure, accurate and up-to-date patient information
in real-time.

eCHN is especially important in the treatment of children suffering from
such chronic conditions or diseases as cancer, diabetes, cerebral palsy,
acquired brain injury, muscular dystrophy, amputation, epilepsy, spina
bifida, arthritis, cleft-lip and palate, autism and other developmental
disabilities.

"eCHN reduces the chances of a record being illegible, lost or
unavailable," said Dr. Hudak. "It also diminishes the need for repeat
diagnostic testing."

"eCHN has made the dream of e-Health a reality," said Ontario Health
Minister David Caplan. "My goal is to have an electronic health system for
all residents of Ontario fully in place by 2015. eCHN serves as an
inspiration as we continue down the path of modernizing the entire
healthcare system."

Following its 10 year Anniversary, eCHN hopes to expand even further in
Ontario to more independent medical clinics, paediatricans and family
doctors.

"Over the last 10 years, eCHN has grown organically in the way physicians,
therapists and nurses felt it was most useful," said Andrew Szende,
president and CEO, eCHN. "As more health care practitioners continue to
adopt the system, we look forward to the day when every person can have
their own electronic medical chart."