Healthcare is one area where vendors and distributors are placing their bets, since it’s a market that appears to be growing despite economic conditions. And here in Canada, there’s most definitely a need for smart solutions – since our government has managed to make a mess of things, and we’re not nearly as far along with electronic health records as we should be.
Canada is sadly lagging behind most of the developed world when it comes to electronic health records, except for the U.S. – and that’s not saying much. However, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is providing additional funding south of the border to get electronic patient records moving.
A vast majority of our doctors’ visits still result in paper records, despite the fact we’ve spent a lot of money trying to digitize them. Now, Canada Health Infoway says it wants 50 per cent of medical records available electronically by the end of 2010. So far, we’re only a third of the way there.
In October, a report on the eHealth Ontario spending scandal charged that successive governments wasted $1 billion in taxpayer money on underused computer systems and untendered contracts; Health Minister David Caplan resigned as a result.
EHealth Ontario was set up in 2008 after Smart Systems for Health, its predecessor, failed to produce after spending $650 million. But eHealth Ontario hasn’t any better – at one point, the agency was using more than 300 consultants. Now the province is looking to develop a strategic plan for implementing electronic health records, while improving oversight.
This comes at a time when distributors are putting a clear focus on healthcare – something that’s much needed in the Canadian market right now. Avnet, for example, has just boosted its healthcare practice, HealthPath, with new Vendor Neutral Archiving (VNA) solutions for VARs, which focus on storing and managing patient data and medical images. It’s also providing a healthcare imaging assessment service.
Avnet has added three independent software vendors to its roster, including Acuo Technologies (a developer of software for intelligent medical image management, standards-based archiving and data migration tools), DeJarnette Research Systems (a developer of medical imaging workflow and image management software) and TeraMedica Healthcare Technology (a provider of software to collect digital medical images from diverse data sources and manage them in a single patient snapshot).
And Tech Data recently opened up a specialized business unit to focus on healthcare with solutions spanning digital signage to physical security to content management, along with its TechMed Web Resource Center and TechMed Solutions Pavilion. Ingram Micro, too, has a healthcare practice.
For VARs, now is the time to help Canada develop that strategic plan, while providing transparency and accountability – and they’ve got the support of several disties to help them get there.
