Telemedicine connects specialists, cystic fibrosis patients

Adults living with cystic fibrosis in Greater Sudbury and northeastern Ontario are able to connect with specialists at St. Michael's Hospital through telemedicine.

These telemedicine sessions supplement the twice-yearly satellite clinic held at Health Sciences North for adult patients with cystic fibrosis, led by a physician at St. Michael’s Hospital.

“The telemedicine clinic is working very well for our adult patients with cystic fibrosis,” Sharri-Lynn Zinger, a registered nurse who co-ordinates the telemedicine clinic, said.

“There is no physician in northeastern Ontario who specializes in adult cystic fibrosis, so using telemedicine allows patients to stay closer to home, closer to their families, and they don’t have to travel as many hours to see a physician.”

Dr. Elizabeth Tullis is the medical director of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Tullis flies to Sudbury twice a year to meet with adult cystic fibrosis patients.

“We are using technology to bring patient care closer,” Tullis said. “It’s more convenient for patients because they no longer have to drive or take a long bus ride to Toronto or spend money on hotels, gas or transportation.”

Alana Grant is one of the patients who participate in the clinic.

Grant said a trip to Toronto means not just a long drive, but missed exercise and treatments and a setback to her well-being.

She would normally spend four hours a day doing inhalation drug therapy and physiotherapy and another five hours a day exercising.

“For me to go to Toronto, I miss all that exercise and my lungs get so much more congested,” Grant adds. “It usually takes a couple of days to start feeling better, but through the telemedicine clinic I get to talk to Dr. Tullis as if she were there.”

Posted by Arron Pickard