Future of health care is online, despite connectivity issues: senators

OTTAWA — Technologies that allow doctors to diagnose and treat patients remotely are among the innovations set to change our health care system, senators said at an event unveiling a new report on the issue, though improvements and upgrades when it comes to internet service will be a necessary part of getting there. Members of the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology presented their vision for the future of health care in Canada at the University of Ottawa on Tuesday. The announcement included demonstrations and information about technologies like big data-powered psychological diagnosis, robotic hands controlled by augmented gloves, and a stylus which demonstrated how tactile feedback could be transmitted for remote surgery. “The big thing is: what can be done by distance as to offer all the services everywhere and reduce costs,” senator Chantal Petitclerc said in an interview. She acknowledged that everyone will need the same level of connectivity to take advantage of these advances — something that currently isn’t the case in Canada, where internet access in many rural and remote areas lags that of more urban regions. Petitclerc said that as the senator from the Grandville, Que. senate division, she knows about the limitations faced by Canadians who don’t live in urban areas. “I'm already aware that the level ... is not there everywhere,” said Petitclerc. “I think it should be non-negotiable and it shouldn't be whether it's ten people living there, or ten thousand, or hundreds of thousands. It should be a right.” Petitclerc was joined at the event by committee chairman Kelvin Ogilvie and deputy chairman Art Eggleton to present the report, titled Challenge Ahead. The report follows a study on the effects of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and 3D printing on the health-care landscape in Canada. It includes 14 recommendations mainly focused on the creation of a national conference to discuss the issues of ethics, jobs and privacy in the next generation of medical technology. “It is not a specific recommendation, but many of the witnesses did mention that, of course, connectivity will be crucial,” said Petitclerc. “Because we realise that there are so many things that can be done, and that patients want to be done, in their hometown.” However, even if fast, reliable internet service was extended to all Canadians, there will need to be fundamental improvements to the internet itself for some of this technology to work. University of Ottawa PhD student Mohammed Al Jaafreh and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, director of the Medical Devices Innovation Institute, presented the tactile feedback research at the event on Tuesday. For it to come to fruition, they pointed towards the still-in-development Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1918.1 standard. The IEEE is a global body responsible for developing standards that drive the digital world, such as the 802.11 standard for WiFi. The 1918.1 standard will govern the tactile internet and would standardize the low latency requirements which future surgeons would need to operate remotely. The internet as it operates today is based on protocols that were “developed for email, not for multimedia, not for touch, not for haptic, smell, whatever,” El Saddik said. That means new internet standards and protocols are needed to eliminate the latency and jitter which could potentially screw up something as serious as surgery. These improvements, Al Saddik said, aren’t expected until the middle of next decade. “The point of our report is to ensure that Canada is prepared all the way along to understand what is happening and what is going to happen next,” said Ogilvie in a follow-up phone call. Using other dramatic progress the field of medicine as an example, Ogilvie said the time is now to tackle the emerging ethical issues for the protection and benefit of Canadians. While the “wildest examples” of the medical advances are “still down the road,” said Ogilvie, the practical examples of artificial intelligence, robotics and 3D printing are already in use, and in “the diagnostic area, they are widely used.” — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Future of health care is online, despite connectivity issues: senators

News | October 31, 2017

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Future of health care is online, despite connectivity issues: senators

News | October 31, 2017

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

Feds launch AI compute strategy

Canadian media companies sue OpenAI for copyright infringement, could cost $322 billion

OPINION: Government agencies using AI must implement governance programs, or risk losing trust

Champagne announces launch of Canadian AI Safety Institute

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us