The Tribune

BTC has pledged to donate $100,000 over a five year period to the Sick Kids Foundation for the development of a telemedicine lab at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

Minister of Health Dr Perry Gomez and Ted Garrard, president and CEO of the Sick Kids Foundation, announced the partnership at a press conference.

The telemedicine lab, which will open later this year in the Princess Margaret Hospital, will facilitate remote physician-patient conference consultation when necessary, to assist local doctors and patients and allow parents of sick children the opportunity to speak directly with a medical team about the diagnosis and treatment options for their child.

BTC senior manager for public relations Jerome Sawyer explained that the community initiative is one of several civic outreach initiatives in a programme of continuing community support.

“BTC sees the beneficial potential in this partnership to impact the lives of dozens of children and parents each year. As the leading telecommunications provider in the country BTC is a natural fit to support and help facilitate this positive and valuable new technology.

“And it is just one more civic outreach in a programme of continuing community support that is also a part of BTC’s 40th anniversary Gift to the country,” he said.

“We understand that telemedicine will enable closer and more timely client physician interaction and help bring a higher level of comfort and clarity to the process of patient care. We hope this partnership will signal the beginning of our involvement in telemedicine ventures in other sectors of the healthcare system. We are proud to be a part of this venture.”

The Sick Kids Foundation, which is based in Toronto, Canada, recently expanded its efforts to the Caribbean as part of its Caribbean Pediatric Cancer and Blood Programme to assist in providing children with medical diagnosis and assistance that they may not have otherwise.

Currently, the survival rate in the Caribbean for children with cancer is between 50 and 60 per cent, and via telemedicine outreach and other services that the Sick Kids Foundation hopes to provide, the aim is to improve children’s chances of survival.