If Ontario’s healthcare system is to survive

current fiscal and demographic pressures,

transformative interventions are required.

One of these is telemedicine, which enables

patient-centred care, allowing providers to

extend their reach while improving quality,

increasing satisfaction and lowering costs.

The Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) is

the global leader in telemedicine, partnering

with more healthcare organizations and

providers than anyone else in the world.

Every dollar invested in OTN provides a

significant return — few healthcare innovations

offer as much potential to transform and sustain

our system as this made-in-Ontario solution.

HEALTH CARE TRANSFORMATION IS UNDERWAY.

of Ontarians

were satisfied

with telemedicine

and 91% would

use it again

%92

of consumers want

to connect with

their healthcare

providers

electronically

%75As Canadians, we value our public healthcare system:

it defines us and is a point of pride. The interventions

required to save universal health care are in full swing.

Policy makers, providers and patients are actively exploring

ways to increase access, improve quality and control the

costs of health care.

Innovative care delivery systems like the Ontario

Telemedicine Network are already pointing the way to the

future with programs that enhance access to care, enable

chronic disease management in the home and save lives

through virtual care.

In our transformed system:

• A patient with chronic heart disease takes her vital signs, transmits them to her nurse and waits for her weekly coaching call to begin - while sitting in her living room.

• A physician catches up on patient consultations – late at night in his home office.

• A hospital discharges a patient – with a support system to keep her healthy at home.

5

Population that accounts for 34% of

healthcare costs

WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH SHIFTS BEFORE...

ER visits that could have been treated in

alternative primary care settings

People readmitted to hospital post dischargeof healthcare costs are due to

preventable illnesses

Number of seniors in Ontario

will double by 2020

Cost of health care for

seniors is three times

higher than the average

Source: Ontario’s Action Plan for Health Care

2X 3X

271,000

140,000

1%25%

TELEMEDICINE ENABLES A NEW MODEL OF CARE THAT IMPROVES ACCESS, INCREASES SATISFACTION AND LOWERS COSTS.

1993

1992

2020s

1995-2002 2006 2014First telemedicine

event in Ontario

More people leave hospital after procedure than remain overnight

More virtual visits than physical visits

inpatient care

inpatient care

Each transition involves people, process, and technology changes

outpatient care

outpatient care virtual care

OTN founded

(networks merged)

OTN works with about 1,300

healthcare organizations and

more than 8,000 healthcare

providers in 1,748 sites across

Ontario enabling 390,906

patient consultations

North, SouthWest,

Eastern Networks

launchedTHE RISE OF CONNECTED CONSUMERS

Canada is one of most wired countries in

the world. Our Internet usage outpaces

that of our global peers and we’re using

this access to do a wide range of things –

from banking to shopping to making dinner

reservations. Ontarians are searching for

health information and want the same kind

of access to their health system that they

have to banks, retailers and restaurants.

They want to be able to make appointments

and renew prescriptions – and have access

to their healthcare team.

HEALTH CARE IS UNDER ENORMOUS PRESSURE

Fiscal pressures are driven by a number of

factors, including new treatment options,

but the rising rate of chronic diseases –

including chronic obstructive lung disease,

cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia

– is the main contributor. In addition, the

number of seniors – including people over

85 – is increasing exponentially and the cost

of caring for an older person is three times

higher than caring for an average person.

“TELEMEDICINE IS READY FOR PRIME-TIME. THERE ARE TWO BIG DRIVERS.

A HEALTHCARE SYSTEM UNDER PRESSURE TO CREATE BETTER VALUE FOR

MONEY AND THE EMPOWERED, TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED CONSUMER.”

- DR. ED BROWN, CEO, OTN

7

Telemedicine allows providers to remotely diagnose, monitor

and treat patients – and helps patients manage their illnesses

through self care and access to education and support

systems. OTN provides the secure, confidential and universal

platform and tools, programs and services that make this

possible – created in consultation with care providers so that

OTN can rapidly develop, test and deploy real-world solutions.

After two decades of innovation, OTN is the global leader in

telemedicine, partnering with more healthcare organizations

and providers than anywhere else in the world. Few healthcare

innovations offer as much transformative potential. OTN is a

trusted provider and a made-in-Ontario solution that is already

integrated into the public healthcare system. It’s time to ensure

that telemedicine is available to everyone in Ontario.

GLOBAL TELEMEDICINE MARKET:

$13.8 BILLION IN 2012$16.1 BILLION IN 2013$35.1 BILLION PREDICTED BY 2018

OTN SITES: 1,748PATIENTS SERVED: 390,906LEARNING EVENTS: 21,477

OTN IS A SECURE

NETWORK THAT

MEETS ONTARIO’S

REGULATORY

REQUIREMENTS,

ENSURING PATIENT

PRIVACY AND

CONFIDENTIALITY.

9

TELEHOMECARE KEEPS PATIENTS HEALTHY AT HOME.

This is Beatrice. She’s 77 and has chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease (COPD). “One morning, I was having

trouble breathing, really gasping. My poor family was

terrified and called 911.”

Beatrice was in hospital for 10 days and when she was able

to go home, her family doctor, Dr. Sanjeev Goel, enrolled her

in OTN’s Telehomecare as part of her care plan.

Telehomecare supports patients with COPD or chronic

heart failure through health coaching and remote

monitoring in the comfort of their own homes. With

easy-to-use equipment, patients measure their vital signs

and answer simple questions about how they’re feeling.

Specially-trained nurses – or other clinicians – monitor

results and alert the primary care provider if there are signs

of an exacerbation. Weekly phone coaching helps patients

make the connection between habits and health. And

providers receive convenient reports.

With Telehomecare, patients gain the skill and confidence

to effectively manage their condition at home. Beatrice

says the equipment is simple to use and thanks to her

Telehomecare nurse, she’s learning to “stay off the salt” and

exercise regularly. “I can’t believe the care I’m getting.”

Best of all, Beatrice hasn’t been back to hospital.

TELESTROKE SAVES LIVES

One morning in July, 2011, Brandy Engelsdorfer, a 35-year-

old in Shannonville, Ontario, headed to the second floor of

her home to wake up her three children. At the top of the

stairs, she suddenly banged into the wall, “and the world

turned sideways.”

She didn’t know it then, but she was having a major stroke.

A 1.4 cm blood clot was blocking blood flow in the main artery

that carries blood to the brain. Before losing consciousness,

Brandy called her husband and asked her seven-year-old

daughter to call 911.

At Belleville General Hospital, through OTN’s Telestroke,

doctors immediately connected with Dr. David Gladstone,

a stroke neurologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Telestroke allows consulting stroke specialists to collaborate

with doctors at 23 referring hospitals in Ontario. Dr. Gladstone

was able to examine Brandy by video and view her brain scan

images as well as discuss diagnosis and treatment with her

husband. Belleville General had become a Telestroke referring

site just six months earlier.

Dr. Gladstone determined that Brandy was a candidate for

treatment with the clot-dissolving drug, tissue plasminogen

activator (tPA). TPA is the most effective emergency

treatment for stroke, but had not been widely available outside

of specialized stroke centres until the Telestroke program was

created. The challenge is that tPA needs to be administered

as quickly as possible after the onset of a stroke to have

maximum benefit, and it can also cause serious bleeding

complications. Telestroke helps to ensure that local doctors

use tPA for the right patients and as safely as possible.

In Brandy’s case, the tPA worked to dissolve her clot and save

her life. She recovered fully and, in her own words, is, “better

than ever.”

“The Telestroke program has completely revolutionized

stroke care delivery in this province,” Dr. Gladstone says.

“It transports us to the patient’s bedside and allows us to

provide emergency clot-busting drug therapy to so many

patients with stroke who otherwise would not be able to

receive this treatment. Ontarians are truly fortunate to have

this innovative, world-class program.”

• Community (57%)

• Hospital (19%)

• Primary Care (16%)

• Other (8%)

Patients served has increased 27% over 2013

WHERE PATIENTS USE TELEMEDICINE

11

Beatrice & Dr. Sanjeev Goel

• Access and answers: patients will be able to ask for advice and book appointments using their mobile devices.

• Faster care: family practitioners will be able to confer with specialists from their offices.

• Reduced costs: remote monitoring will reduce reliance on emergency rooms and readmission for patients who’ve been in hospital.

For patients, telemedicine is about access and convenience.

For Ontario’s healthcare system, telemedicine is about

survival. Ontario’s Action Plan for Health Care calls for a

system that delivers care in a better way and provides

increased value for taxpayers. Telemedicine supports this

mandate by enabling a new model of patient-centred care,

allowing providers to extend their reach while improving

quality, increasing satisfaction and lowering costs. OTN

is ready to take telemedicine to scale by introducing this

secure, confidential and universal solution into every home

and healthcare institution across the province. However, for

Ontario’s telemedicine network to reach its full potential,

expanded partnerships and a new policy and regulatory

framework are required. Ontario’s healthcare system is

worth saving. We must not let this opportunity to provide

better care for less money slip away.

ONTARIO HAS

A WINDOW OF

OPPORTUNITY

RIGHT NOW TO

BETTER SERVE

PATIENTS,

IMPROVE OUR

HEALTHCARE

SYSTEM AND

MAKE IT MORE

SUSTAINABLE.

13

.

OTN now connects providers so they can collaborate with

one another and communicate with patients. In the very near

future, the entire system will revolve around the patient.

Working with the Ministry and our eHealth partners, OTN’s vision

is that each patient will have a single care plan. By integrating

OTN’s telemedicine platform into Ontario’s eHealth services,

connected providers can effectively collaborate with each other

and move in and out of the plan to better serve patients. Patients

will be able to focus on getting well, outcomes will improve and

the system will become much more cost effective.

The Ontario Telemedicine Network is a made-in-Ontario

solution. OTN’s platform, tools, programs and services were

developed in consultation with providers in every part of

Ontario’s healthcare system so that real-world solutions could

be rapidly developed, tested and deployed. Today, OTN with

its partners and funders has brought together one of the

largest networks of connected care providers in the world.

OTN’s confidence in virtual care and the way it will continue

to transform health care comes from seeing the results of

early efforts. Whether it is reduced hospital admissions

through Telehomecare, shorter wait times thanks to the

Telederm project, or fewer deaths due to the Telestroke

initiative, the results are compelling. OTN is helping drive

a new level of collaboration between healthcare providers,

patients and government.

And OTN is positioned to do much more.

First, Ontarians want direct access to their healthcare team

via a secure telemedicine system that is part of the public

healthcare system they know and trust. OTN is that provider.

Second, OTN can marshal the best of emerging virtual care

solutions – establishing standards for these products and

services – and integrate them into OTN’s delivery platform.

Third, OTN is the right vehicle to develop the strategy for

virtual care in Ontario. It has the expertise, partnerships in the

health care and technology sectors, and 20 years of experience

in telemedicine innovation and delivery.

THE OTN ADVANTAGE –

“ONE PATIENT, ONE CARE

PLAN, ONE PLATFORM”

Tax dollars not spent

subsidizing patient travel

Half of Ontarians waited at least 12

weeks for an initial consultation with

a dermatologist. Using telemedicine,

patients received a consultation

within 5 days.

Patient kilometers not travelled

$61,800,539

259,657,178

OTN BOTH FREES UP

HEALTHCARE SYSTEM CAPACITY

AND IMPROVES PATIENT CARE

• Improving access to specialists especially for

rural and northern Ontarians

• Enhancing quality patient-centred care

through closer-to-home care and improved

follow-up

• Supporting the application of best practices

and guidelines

• Improving healthcare provider effectiveness

• Reducing avoidable use of the health

care system

• Supporting system sustainability through

professional development

TELEMEDICINE IS A WIN-WIN

Through comprehensive telemedicine adoption, Ontario can

avoid $244.9M in annual costs by:

• Avoid 12,118 emergency visits from long term care ($8.8M)

• Avoid travel grants to northern and rural communities to

have 160,552 specialist visits ($61.8M)

• Avoid 1,348 Telecrisis emergency room visits by treating

patients in lower cost settings ($600K)

• Avoid 435 critical care transfers ($2.3M)

• Through Telehomecare, reduce unscheduled

emergency visits, walk-in clinic visits or hospital

admissions due to unmanaged chronic disease ($171.4M)

• 87% felt as comfortable receiving care through

telemedicine as they would have in person.

But telemedicine also has other benefits:

• Patient convenience through avoided travel time and costs

• Reduced wait times

• Healthcare provider efficiency

These benefits are vital to the development of a sustainable

healthcare system.

REDUCED PATIENT TRAVEL

SAVES TAX DOLLARS AND

MAKES ACCESS TO HEALTH

CARE EASIER FOR PATIENTS,

URBAN AND RURAL.

SERVICE

Teleophthalmology for diabetic screening

Dermatology consulation

up to6 Months

Mental Health Crisis(Form 1 Assessment)

IN-PERSON

6 Months

48 Hours

4 Weeks

5 Days

2 Hours

TELEVISIT

5 DAYS

1514

OTN HELPS THESE PROVIDERS EXTEND

THEIR REACH.

Academic health science centres

Community hospitals

Psychiatric hospitals

Family doctors

Family health teams

Community health centres

Clinics

Nursing stations

Medical and nursing schools

Professional organizations

Community Care Access Centres

Local Health Integration Networks

Aboriginal communities

Long-term-care homes

Educational facilities

Public health

Independent not-for-profit corporation funded

by the Government of Ontario and supported by

Canada Health Infoway.

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Ontario.

OTN’s CEO is Edward M. Brown, MD

To meet the rest of our leadership team,

please visit otn.ca

For further information, please contact:

John Bozzo, Executive Lead,

Marketing and Communications

o: 416.446.4110 ext. 4065

m: 416.879.1384

e: jbozzo@otn.ca or visit otn.ca

OTN.

WE’RE CONNECTING YOU TO CARE.

OTN CLINICAL PROGRAMS MAKE

HEALTH CARE MORE ACCESSIBLE.

Mental Health & Addictions

Surgery

Oncology

Primary Care

Telehomecare

Emergency Services

Telestroke

Teletrauma

Teleburn

Telecrisis

Teledermatology

Telewound

Teleophthalmology