E-health leads Nova Scotia's healthcare transformation

Nova Scotia's healthcare policy direction seems well-defined and well-established for the foreseeable future. This is the case, despite the recent electoral transition from a Progressive Conservative to a New Democratic Party government for the first time in the province's history; and despite the threat of the province's net direct debt increasing through 2012, after eight years of declining net direct debt as a percentage of the province's gross domestic product. As well, little public consideration is being given to disrupting the current regional healthcare organizational structure by further consolidating the province's nine district health authorities (DHA), as occurred last year in Alberta and New Brunswick. Moreover, the Health Information Technology Services Program of Nova Scotia (HITS-NS), the province's shared IT services or provincial service delivery organization, is steadily expanding the inventory of clinical, financial, and administrative software applications hosted for eight DHAs on a common Meditech Client-Server platform, as well as some applications for Capital Health DHA 9 (CDHA) and IWK Health Centre (IWK), the province's consolidated women's and children's hospital located in Halifax.