Bell

---

Imagine a doctor at the Montreal Children’s Hospital being able to look at and listen to a child’s heart in Sherbrooke, or a family doctor in the Gaspé being able to conference with colleagues back at the MCH cardiology unit. Imagine a nurse in Salluit receiving training from Montreal through the MCH Distance Teaching and Learning Center. It’s all real, and it happens thanks to the Telehealth program supported by Bell’s 5 million dollar donation.

Telehealth uses cutting-edge multi-media technology to allow health professionals to collaborate on clinical care, research and teaching, at a distance. At the Glen site, it features at about 130 locations, including some 40 videoconferencing rooms.

“Telehealth emerged from the Children’s,” notes the program’s coordinator Madeleine St-Gelais, adding that thanks to Bell, the existing service was then be deployed to the rest of the MUHC network.

All of MUHC’s clinical personnel can now use state-of-the-art equipment in long distance care, teleconsultation and teleformation. “We are happy to see that our $5 million donation can be used to care for a larger number of patients, adults and children alike,” says Martine Turcotte, Bell’s vice chair, Quebec.

There were more than 5 000 individual Telehealth activities each year, including some involving 2-year old Stanley from the Nunavik community of Puvirnituq. He has already had two major operations, including open-heart surgery when he was just six months old.