TELEMEDICINE AND TELEHEALTH IN CANADA - 40 YEARS OF CHANGE IN THE USEOF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES IN A PUBLICLY ADMINISTERED HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM

The Canadian climate and geography are particularly well suited to the adoption of communications technologies for long-distance medical car e and education. Canada has a long history of use of telemedicine appl ications, and in recent years, the number and variety of telehealth ac tivities in Canada have increased dramatically. Using information gath ered for a competitive framework study of the telehealth industry in C anada, this article documents these changes. The trends observed have been encouraged by the development of provincial and national infrastr ucture for the health information highway, changes in the health care system, increased technological capacity and speed, and government int ervention and assistance. The pace of growth is apparent in the increa ses in the number of projects, the number of companies offering telehe alth products and services, the adoption by public organizations of te lehealth technologies for a wider range of applications, and the incre asing amount of research being undertaken. The article concludes with comments on the role of government intervention in fostering these dev elopments.