2000-01-11|Canadian Information Productivity Awards (Nomination)
THE BASICS
Title of Entry
Name of Entrant
- Name of Contact Person:
- Go Simon Sunatori, P.Eng., M.Eng.
- Title:
- President & Chief Executive Officer
- Organisation name:
- Organisation address:
- 65, des Parulines
Hull (Québec)
CANADA J9A 1Z4
- E-mail:
- Telephone:
- Facsimile:
Contact Relationship to Entry
- The contact person conceived the idea, developed the system, coded the software, designed the website, and acted as webmaster/postmaster.
The Web address associated with this entry
- http://WWW.HyperInfo.CA/MediCanada/
Category
- Institutions (health care organisations)
- Organisational Transformation
- Next Generation Solutions
OVERVIEW
One-sentence Description
- An on-line directory of Canadian physicians on the Internet
Summary Description of your Entry
- MediCanada Services is a bilingual health-care service on the World-Wide Web. A visitor will select the criteria, and an intelligent system will generate a list of relevant physicians from a value-added database. Recent health care reform proposals by some provincial governments to force their residents to sign a contract with 1 (one) family doctor highlights the need for a service that helps identify a suitable physician.
Background
- A vast amount of medical information is already available on the Internet, and more health information networks such as "Canadian Health Iway" are being announced. However, the most important aspect of personal health care, i.e., finding a suitable physician, remains a black art.
- Today, the primary methods of finding a family doctor are "word of mouth" and Yellow Pages. Usually, several telephone calls are required because many physicians are no longer accepting new patients, one requires special expertise from a family doctor, or one prefers to specify a male or female physician. Thus, there are significant potential savings through improved management and administration by the introduction of an integrated directory of Canadian physicians.
- The MediCanada Directory service addresses access to health services from remote or under-served areas or segments of the population who would try to find a suitable physician for tele-medicine consultation and/or even surgery using broadband technology on the Internet in the future.
- There are no other identified competing services in Canada that are available on the Internet. Elsewhere, there are several "Find-a-Doctor" type services on the Internet in the U.S.A. operated by Health Maintenance Organisations (HMO).
Objectives
- To provide significant savings in Canadian society through an integrated directory of Canadian physicians
- To deliver directory service in both official languages (English, French) from a single database
Results
- MediCanada Services provides the general public with a single point of entry and simple and consistent presentation in order to allow them to find a suitable physician. Well-organised structured directory of Canadian physicians makes unique contribution by providing relevant information to potential patients. The well-organised website demonstrates reduced cost and time as well as improved performance for the customers compared with conventional methods of finding a physician, i.e., "word of mouth" and Yellow Pages.
- The measurement of improved customer service is evident in ever-growing number of visits to the MediCanada Services website. Positive comments were received from the Commissioner of Official Languages, Victor C. Goldbloom, for the fully bilingual nature of the website. In addition, the MediCanada Services website has been nominated for the Canadian Internet Awards for "Best Health or Medical Site", thanks to the innovative use of technology.
Costs
- Development Budget (Confidential)
- $10 001 CAD to $100 000 CAD
- Maintenance Budget (Confidential)
In what ways is your system/solution innovative?
- The following design philosophies of the information technology application contribute to the long-term benefits to the organisation in terms of continuous improvements in productivity.
- Absolute Simplicity and Consistency with an emphasis on substance rather than appearance, image, perception.
- Concept storage in Knowledge Packet and Knowledge Links with Single Master Source place holder.
- Single Point-of-Entry access to document-centric Knowledge Base to achieve Maximum Flexibility.
- Automated Push-Button Operation.
TECHNICAL & PRODUCTION
Infrastructure
- MediCanada.acgi
- This CGI script conducts Multi-Lingual Presentation from Single Database. A unique technique makes the data mutually exclusive for efficient operation, and reduces redundancy and duplication. The source data in the database on the web server is coded in language-independent format, so that the translation table can dynamically generate, from a single source, human-understandable data to the client web browser in a specified language. An intelligent selection algorithm incorporates some elements of fuzzy logic, i.e., a "Don't Care" condition, to assemble a personalised HTML document from knowledge packets stored in the database.
- HyperInfo Intelligent Knowledge Object Organisation System was developed as a series of HyperCard stacks to organise and process Information as Knowledge Objects. Specifically, the system consists of the following components.
- HyperCard Object Organiser - Once you store HyperCard Object elements in the master Source Library, stacks can be automatically built and updated through a correct-by-construction method.
- HTML File Organiser - The HTML stack can be used to store and manage HTML files effectively.
Technology and/or services employed
- Apple Power Macintosh computer (hardware)
- Apple Mac OS operating system (software)
- Apple HyperCard and AppleScript (software)
- Ascend Pipeline 50 router (hardware)
- StarNine WebSTAR HTTP and ListSTAR SMTP server (software)
- Bell Canada Microlink Centrex (service)
- Netcom Canada ISDN-Internet (service)
APPENDICES: OTHER MATERIALS
- HyperInfo Canada Inc., headquartered in Gatineau, QC, Canada, specialises in Research and Development on the Information Superhighway and Cyberspace applications. Its Pay-For-Value HyperInfo Knowledge Power Centre on the Internet World-Wide Web is at the following URL.
- Please direct comments to the following E-mail address.
Donation
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- Copyright © 1995-Present/Présent by/par HyperInfo Canada Inc.
- All rights reserved./Tous droits réservés.
- Produced in Canada./Produit au Canada.
- ISBN 978-0-929105-02-4
- 2018-03-25T00:13:39,0Z
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