eHealth experts come together to discuss healthcare innovation and how to make Canada a digital nation
STRATFORD, ON, May 6 - Driving the discussion around health information and communications technologies (ICT) will be the main focus for the Revolutionizing Stream at the upcoming Canada 3.0 2010 forum. The session, scheduled for May 10-11, will take a closer look at the role that healthcare technology plays in transforming Canada's digital economy. Co-chairs, Jeff Nesbitt of Agfa HealthCare and Dan Larocque of Open Text are bringing together key players from industry, government and academia for a candid conversation around healthcare innovation in Canada.
"We recognize the critical importance of healthcare innovation in Canada and are excited to be part of the Canada 3.0 event, as it aligns with our goals - through initiatives such as the Agfa HealthCare Institute - to leverage strategic partnerships with world-class vendors, academic institutions, government and healthcare providers to help drive forward innovation in healthcare technology," said Jeff Nesbitt, Vice President, Government Relations & Strategic Programs & Executive Chair, Agfa HealthCare Waterloo. "It is an honor for Agfa to be asked to co-chair an event like this because we know that the key to making eHealth a reality in Canada is through collaboration. With the strengths of our community and digital partners, we are opening up new doors in healthcare that we never thought possible."
Alongside the "moonshot" target for Canada's digital media industry - of making it possible for "anyone to do anything online in Canada - by 2017", leaders in the healthcare space are also driven by Canada Health Infoway's national eHealth initiative. The panel speakers will address the importance of an electronic health record (EHR) infrastructure to help drive the advancement of healthcare IT in Canada.
"Transitioning from traditional paper copy patient records to secure, digital medical files is a critical initiative throughout the health care industry," said Dan Larocque, Vice-president Canadian Public Sector at Open Text Corporation. "Because our Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software is highly secure, privacy issues are not a deterrent to digitizing content, enabling medical records to be retrieved by health care practitioners from anywhere at anytime. Access to patient information is more efficient overall and in extreme circumstances, can help contribute to saving lives."
Taking place at the Rotary Complex in Stratford, the forum features a select group of speakers in the Revolutionizing session with opportunity for attendee discussion and input in a broader range of breakout sessions and workshops. Topics include:
- Knowing is Better: Completing the Electronic Health Record Infrastructure
- Democratization of Healthcare: Empowering Patients and their Providers
- Bringing Mobility to Medical Devices
- Making it Usable: Adoption of Digital Technologies in the Healthcare Space
- Gaining National Health Information Technology Competitiveness
For full details on the forum, log into www.canada30.ca or follow developments on Twitter using #can30.
About Canada 3.0 2010
Canada 3.0 2010 is a forum organized by the Canadian Digital Media Network www.cdmn.ca and the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus www.stratfordcampus.uwaterloo.ca intended to advance Canada's strength in digital media. The CDMN will link Canada's digital media expertise and capability from coast-to-coast, enabling collaboration between researchers, implementers and entrepreneurs.
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading imaging and information technology companies. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare) and film related products and specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa's headquarters are in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries throughout the world. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 3,401 million Euro in 2006.
About Agfa HealthCare
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and image management solutions, and state-of-the-art systems for capturing, processing and printing images in hospitals and healthcare facilities. The company has over a century of experience in diagnostic imaging and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Agfa HealthCare today employs 5,700 staff members, with sales offices and representatives in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2006 were 1,452 million Euro, accounting for 43% of total group sales. For more information on Agfa HealthCare, please visit www.agfa.com/healthcare.
For further information: Media Contacts: Carolyn Hurley, Agfa HealthCare media relations, (416) 809-8001 orchurley@highroad.com; Shelley Grandy, Canada 3.0 media relations, (905) 866-2656 or shelley@cdmn.ca