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Improving Health System Focus of Conference

By Elaine Macdonald

This coming Monday and Tuesday,  the "Connecting the North” conference will take place in Prince George.

The two day conference will bring together Northern BC physicians and their staff, NH staff leaders, as well as other experts including an Alaskan delegation.

“An aging population and challenges in the recruitment of health professionals require us to study new ways of improving our services while keeping them sustainable,” said NH CEO Malcolm Maxwell. “Understanding the latest developments in health system improvement and chronic disease management will help us improve quality of life for all people requiring health services while ensuring that health resources are effectively managed.”

The conference will feature representatives from the South Central Foundation in Alaska, an organization that’s earned international acclaim for innovative and effective health service delivery. The conference will also feature leaders from British Columbia who have led new initiatives in chronic disease care.

“We know that current health systems require change to better manage the increasing demand for health services,” said Dr. Andrew Sear, a Quesnel-based physician. “For example, diabetes patients across the continent typically have a 50/50 chance of receiving adequate diabetes care. And based on several data measures from 2003, that number could be as low as 28 per cent for the Northern BC patients.

“Improvement requires health professionals and organizations to adopt new approaches and tools, including better efforts to help patients with chronic diseases monitor and manage their personal health. Many of those steps are starting to become a reality in Northern BC, with nearly half of all family physicians in our region using a variety of chronic disease management and prevention tools.”

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