BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1510 West
Considered a first in Canada, a new Telehealth Station was launched in Pierrefonds on Monday. It’s a clinic modelled after how the Canadian Space Agency remotely tracks the health of its astronauts.
“The project represents a new way of thinking about health care that is more adapted to our users’ needs,” said Dan Gabay, president and CEO of the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, the regional health board that manages health-care services in the West Island.
At the heart of the clinic is a machine originally designed to monitor the basic health of astronauts while on a mission in space. This machine – known as the Baune Autonomous Care Unit, named after its developer, an Edmonton-based company focused on developing health-care systems for astronauts – allows patients to monitor their vital signs – like blood pressure, pulse and oxygen levels.
By combining technology and artificial intelligence, the Telehealth Station can make a basic determination of whether a person is sick or not. The unit even scans the user’s face to allow an algorithm to assess facial expressions for signs of mental distress. The information is then transmitted to a nurse in real time. Then, if needed, the patient can get an appointment with a doctor.
For people without family doctors
It’s “a pilot project that marks a turning point in the improving care for orphan clienteles,” Gabay said, referring to patients who do not have a family doctor.
“Our goal is to extend this initiative and implement it at other sites so that all of our users can benefit from it,” Gabay explained.
The head of the regional health agency told reporters Monday that the machine is not meant to replace a doctor, but merely provide a means to help alleviate the problems caused by the growing list of West Islanders without a family doctor gain access to health-care services.
In 2022-2023, about one in four Quebecers were without a family doctor, a statistic that translates to roughly 2.1 million Quebecers.
In the West Island, the number of people without a family doctor last year hit an all-time high – 19,726, a 17-per-cent increase from the 16,800 who were on a waiting list for a general practitioner in 2022, according to figures from the provincial Health Ministry.
Officials with the West Island health authority is still determining which patients will have access to the autonomous care unit, which is located in the CLSC Pierrefonds on Gouin Boulevard.
A similar machine is being tested at the Canadian Space Agency facility in Longueuil. It has the capacity to gather 40 health data points, substantially more than the unit set up in Pierrefonds, with Baune officials saying the more sophisticated features could eventually be incorporated in units designed for public use.
The national agency is helping to funding the pilot project in Pierrefonds.