BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

In the past few years, many people have realized getting a quick doctors appointment or spending minimal time in clinic and hospital waiting rooms is a thing of the past. For 94-year-old Pointe Claire resident William Baldwin, however, there are added complexities on top of this reality.

“At times when things get me a little concerned, if I want a doctor or nurse, I have to get to a clinic, which I can’t do myself, because I can’t see well enough to drive,” said Baldwin, who at times experiences cardiac arrhythmia, the effect of a past heart attack, and lives alone.

Baldwin recently participated in a trial run of a distance nursing program being developed by McGill University in collaboration with Health Access Santé in Beaconsfield, and the research team at the Montreal Chest Institute.

The project, which was presented at Health Access Santé last week, links the patient and nurse together over the Internet. The two can communicate with each other via a web cam and microphone, and vitals – such as heartbeat, blood pressure, and oxygen levels – are registered through equipment hooked up to the computers’ USB ports.

Baldwin, who tried out a somewhat older version of the project, has nothing but good things to say about it.

“With this instrument, whenever something bothers you, you just turn it on and you take your on blood pressure and things like that. When you know what your norm is, you see that you need additional help, or maybe that you shouldn’t have been working so hard and need a rest,” he said. “If you need the help, you just press a button and, boom, you’re connected with a nurse from Health Access Santé just like that.” From there on, the nurse can guide patients and tell them what vitals he or she needs, and then decide whether additional help is needed. Nurses can even examine wounds through the microscope attachment.

According to the project’s lead researcher and McGill School of Nursing assistant professor, Antonia Arnaert, not only can this home tele-care technology reduce the number of patients in clinic and hospital waiting rooms and provide better care to those who are isolated, but it also teaches patients about their disease.

“It’s helping people learn about and manage their disease,” she said “We think it’s going to help people be more independent.”

At the presentation, Arnaert explained the current study focuses on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and will be made up of a three-month feasibility program with three patients, followed by a six-month pilot project, done with about nine patients. Patients will be recruited from the Montreal Chest Institute. During this time, Arnaert hopes to find out whether tele-nursing increases the patient’s quality of life, whether it reduces the rate of emergency room visits and hospital stays, and identify the technical and human factors that influence the video-conferencing system to provide the highest quality patient-nurse interactions.

“That sense of connectedness between the patient and nurse really interests me,” she said. “It’s very important to have a high resolution for the interaction.”

Donna Byrne, nurse and president of Health Access Santé, which provides professional nursing and home support services, said the project has been popular with both patients and nurses.

“Technology is not my best friend, but I’m really enjoying it,” she said.

Byrne also said once this technology is more developed, it can branch out to all areas of health care, which will be especially beneficial in reducing wait-times and helping people who are isolated.

“It’s not something that’s going to replace people, but it’s a great support,” she said.

“It’s not one or the other,” Arnaert agreed. “It’s integrating it into the current system.”

Baldwin said using home tele-care has helped him stay at home, rather than moving into a senior’s facility, and maintain his independence.

“It’s a great thing to help a person in that position,” he said. “I still have my freedom, and even at my age, I’m not willing to give that up.”