Hacking and Canadian Healthcare
6 views
Skip to first unread message
Shera
Feb 20, 2012, 11:39:30 PM2/20/12
to oss-uk-health
Here's a recent article on an initiative starting up in Canada to do
the same sorts of things being proposed on this list for the UK.
It's from the Globe and Mail national newspaper (greatest circulation
in Canada) so maybe there will be a surge of interest there now as
well.
(Feel free to throw some expertise into the comments section of the
article before it gets too full of nonsense deriding the public
perception of what "hackers" are, demonstrating a misunderstanding of
open source goals, etc.)
As you may know, Canadian healthcare is public as in the UK, wait
times are lousy as in some areas in the UK, ageing of the population
is an issue as here, but so are vast geography and isolated
multicultural populations (ie. First Nations people ("Indians") on
reserves in the bush, Inuit in the north, various large Asian and
Southeast Asian populations in some places etc.). Challenges are
similar there and I know that in addition to those people mentioned in
the article, at least the Toronto Hackspace (HackLabTO: http://hacklab.to/)
has members who are interested in slashing costs for ie. disability
assistance systems like the advanced programmable wheelchairs, as one
example. They've been at this for a few years now and are data buffs
in general. I know they're a resource open to working with all and
sundry if you want to contact them.
Just wanted to bring this to your attention in case you have an
interest in working with any of these groups, have collaborators in
North America, or are interested in running any sorts of studies on
the evolution of this movement around the world.
Here's the article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/health-news/bridging-the-gap-between-doctors-and-hackers-to-upgrade-health-care/article2344263/
Please feel free to contact me if I can help you with reaching out or
anything.
Lauren
the same sorts of things being proposed on this list for the UK.
It's from the Globe and Mail national newspaper (greatest circulation
in Canada) so maybe there will be a surge of interest there now as
well.
(Feel free to throw some expertise into the comments section of the
article before it gets too full of nonsense deriding the public
perception of what "hackers" are, demonstrating a misunderstanding of
open source goals, etc.)
As you may know, Canadian healthcare is public as in the UK, wait
times are lousy as in some areas in the UK, ageing of the population
is an issue as here, but so are vast geography and isolated
multicultural populations (ie. First Nations people ("Indians") on
reserves in the bush, Inuit in the north, various large Asian and
Southeast Asian populations in some places etc.). Challenges are
similar there and I know that in addition to those people mentioned in
the article, at least the Toronto Hackspace (HackLabTO: http://hacklab.to/)
has members who are interested in slashing costs for ie. disability
assistance systems like the advanced programmable wheelchairs, as one
example. They've been at this for a few years now and are data buffs
in general. I know they're a resource open to working with all and
sundry if you want to contact them.
Just wanted to bring this to your attention in case you have an
interest in working with any of these groups, have collaborators in
North America, or are interested in running any sorts of studies on
the evolution of this movement around the world.
Here's the article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/health-news/bridging-the-gap-between-doctors-and-hackers-to-upgrade-health-care/article2344263/
Please feel free to contact me if I can help you with reaching out or
anything.
Lauren
Carl Reynolds
Feb 23, 2012, 4:06:19 PM2/23/12
to oss-uk-health
That's awesome Lauren, thanks for sharing!
Canadian collaborations will be borne in mind.
Best, Carl
> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/health-news/bri...
Canadian collaborations will be borne in mind.
Best, Carl
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages