Health summit’s goal is to transform health care. York University October 27th, 2011

The challenge in health care today is to shift the emphasis toward prevention and health promotion, while creating accessible and sustainable health services for all. It’s this kind of transformation that is at the heart of discussion at a by-invitation-only Rethinking Health Summit: A Roadmap for Integrated Systems in the GTA/York Region today at Black Creek Pioneer Village.

A critical component of this health-care transformation is the move toward people-centred health that can be powerfully enabled by eHealth information and communication technology (ICT). As Canada faces a looming health-care crisis, today’s Faculty of Health summit is all about integrating health and health care to ensure accessible and sustainable health services for all.

Roberto Nuño Solinís, director of the Basque Institute for Healthcare Innovation, talked about the problems and solutions of transformation in health care in the Basque Country, Spain. University of Toronto Professor Alex Jadad, chief innovator and founder of the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, brought a global perspective to the discussion, while Daniele Zanotti, chief executive officer of the United Way of York Region, brought the York Region perspective.

Harvey Skinner, dean of the Faculty of Health, co-chair of the summit with Jadad and Vaughan Glover, who is president of the Canadian Association of People-Centred Health. Skinner talked about the mission to design and test ways to dramatically improve the capacity to keep more people and their communities healthier, longer.

To do that, he says, it is important to go beyond traditional boundaries in medicine and health care and to work together to create an integrated health system. That means addressing the social determinants of health, prevention and health promotion, as well as providing accessible, quality treatment and rehabilitation when needed.

The summit provided an opportunity for participants to share key learning about what works and what doesn’t in integrated health systems and an innovative network was explored for linking academic, clinical, public health, community and private sector partners with potential chronic disease/injury initiatives.

In the second half of the summit, participants had the opportunity to co-create a roadmap for accelerating innovation in chronic disease prevention and management that will support the design, testing and implementation of integrated systems in the culturally diverse community of the GTA, including York Region.

For more information, visit the Rethinking Health website.