Stella LeeBlended Learning Leader, Global Learning TeamGolder Associates, Inc., Canada

Rethinking the Role of Work, Technology, and Rural Healthcare

Rural Alberta Management (RAM) Retreat 2012

Today’s aims

• Discover new technologies, emerging trends, and good practices

• Learn about how technologies affects your work and life

• Explore opportunities to integrate that into your rural healthcare communities

Outline

• Introduction

• What is the future of work?

• eHealth trends

• Challenges and opportunities for rural healthcare

• Questions and discussions

“Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time”

-Alvin Toffler

“The Future has already arrived. It is just not evenly distributed yet”

-William Gibson

What is the future of work?

The future of work is:

• Collaborative

• Flat

• Competitive

Today, teams use web-based collaboration tools to work together, anytime, anywhere

• Collaboration tool: Google Doc (https://docs.google.com)

• File sharing: Drop Box (http://www.dropbox.com)

The world is flat

•“By 'flat' I did not mean that the world is getting equal. I said that more people in more places can now compete, connect and collaborate with equal power and equal tools than ever before. That's why an Indian in Bangalore can take care of the office work of American doctors or read the X-rays of German hospitals.”

- Thomas Friedman

Flat-enabling tools

• VoIP tool: Skype (http://www.skype.com)

• Webniars: Adobe Connect (http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html)

source: http://www.liv.ac.uk/csd/adobeconnect/index.htm

Source: http://iet.ucdavis.edu/teaching/commtool.cfm

In 2004, JetBlue started a revolution, allowing 700

customer service reps to work from home with no central

office.

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/jbrenman/the-future-of-work-2361479

Lifelong learning/informal learning become more important and readily available

• Open learning initiatives: Stanford AI class (https://www.ai-class.com/)

• Video-based tutorials: Khan Academy (http://www.khanacademy.org)

eHealth trends

Technologies are being developed to support:

• Provider education/consultation

• Care delivery

• Communication and community building

• Remote diagnosis

SMS consultation

• Truth On Call - provide answers via text messages

• Connects with physicians in the US and UK

• Industry pays to ask the questions and the physicians are paid for their responses

source: http://www.truthoncall.com/

Mobile apps for education

• Blausen Human Atlas - apps for iPhone and iPad

• Has library of 150 interactive 3D animations, 1200 images and 1500 medical terms

source: http://blausen.com/atlas/english/human/new

Online communities/collaborations

• Patients Like Me: allow people with life-changing conditions to connect with one another.

• Data-driven social network health site

source: http://www.patientslikeme.com/

Remote diagnostics

• AirStrip: remote patient monitoring via smartphones and tablets

• Live streaming patient information from hospital monitoring system to clinician’s mobile devices

• Information such as heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure

source: http://www.airstriptech.com

Challenges and opportunities for rural

healthcare

Challenges facing rural healthcare professionals

• Problems of scarcity and distance

• More travel time to visit patients, fewer face-to-face visits

• Communicating with other providers and specialists

• Limited access to medical knowledge and research work

• Lack of networking, learning opportunities

Opportunities: Technology enabled solutions

• Email, Skype, social media for communication, consults and education

• Community-based websites for medical information, collaboration, and bringing people together

• Mobile apps and web conferencing tools for remote diagnosis and patient monitoring

Issues to consider:

• Identify other institutions with common interests and goals

• Collaboration among institution and individual providers

• Integration with work flow

• Effective selection of supportive technologies

The biggest challenges are organizational issues, not technology!

• Lack of buy-in

• Resistance to change

• Lack of technical expertise

Getting it right

• Spend time planning

• Patient/clinician driven, not technology driven

• Pilot testing

• Allow for technical difficulties and delay

• Have a backup plan

• Ongoing training and support

Questions and discussions

Thank you!

• Email: stella_lee@golder.com, stellaylee@gmail.com

Twitter: @stellal

• Skype: starry_java

• Academia.edu: http://athabascau.academia.edu/StellaLee

• LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/stella-lee/1/588/a32