University of Waterloo News Release Hospital investigator explores how health informatics can create ideal health care   WATERLOO, Ont. (Wednesday, April 18, 2007) -- The provincial investigator who probed the emergency room crisis in Waterloo Region's hospitals will discuss next week how health informatics can create an ideal health-care system in Canada. In a lecture on Wednesday, April 25, Tom Closson, a health-care management consultant, says he will first discuss the health-care issues facing the country, as well as "the forces that are at work which help or hinder us in addressing the issues." Then he will explore various visions of an ideal system and offer some ideas on future directions in Ontario and throughout Canada. "Finally, I will examine how health informatics plays a significant and necessary role in enabling these directions as we strive to achieve an ideal system," says Closson, former president and CEO of University Health Network in Toronto. His talk, entitled Why Not Create the Ideal Health System Through Health Informatics?, will take place from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in the William G. Davis Centre, room 1302, on the UW campus. The lecture is part of the annual smarter-health seminar series, sponsored by the Waterloo Institute for Health Informatics Research (WIHIR). The UW-based institute dedicates the fifth year of its series to the theme Why Not? The question is the catchphrase for UW's 50th anniversary, celebrated throughout 2007. The series explores such questions as: Why not use the promise of information and communications technologies to improve health and the health-care system in Canada? Why not rethink how we provide health care? Why not do more to make it possible to receive health care at home or in the community? Other speakers in the series will include Geoffrey Fong, professor of psychology at UW; Michael Kirby, a former Canadian senator; Vimla Patel, professor of biomedical informatics and psychiatry at Columbia University; Dr. Brian Haynes, chair of the department of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University; and Dr. Octo Barnett, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. The seminars are open to the public and admission is free. However, people are asked to register before each seminar. For more information and to register, visit http://hi.uwaterloo.ca. For those who cannot travel, the seminars are available via a live webcast and to the Ontario Telehealth Network sites via videoconference. For both, there is an opportunity to ask questions of the speaker. Health informatics is an interdisciplinary area that develops, extends and applies concepts from computer science, information science, telecommunications and other disciplines with the goal of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of health care. WIHIR is a trans-disciplinary institute at the University of Waterloo delivering value to the health system through information, information management, and information and communication technologies research. Seminar sponsors for Closson's talk are the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, Grand River Hospital and St. Mary's General Hospital. Series sponsors are Borden Ladner Gervais, McKesson Canada, Smart Systems for Health Agency and Healthcare Information Management and Communications Canada. -30- Contacts: Shirley Fenton, WIHIR managing director, 519-888-4074 John Morris, UW media relations, 519-888-4435 or jmorris@uwaterloo.ca UW news release no. 36 Get Abobe Acrobat Reader. It's free.

Home | About GWPB | eSurvey | News/Media | Ontario's Biotech Vision | Resources | Contact
copyright © GWPB 2003