If you ask parents how many times they’ve had to take their kids in to the hospital or emergency clinic, most of them will probably answer along the lines of “more times than I care to remember.”
Like me. That’s what I would say to you.
We are incredibly fortunate to have two happy kids who are constantly active. Unfortunately, sometimes being so constantly active results in constantly visiting the local hospital to see if a bone is broken.
Last fall I was at my daughter’s soccer game, keeping one eye on her swift kicks and the other eye on my son who was tootling around on his Razor scooter. In the blink of an eye, Razor-racer had crashed and was holding his arm in a way that instantly set off my “ER Trip” radar.
After a quick drive to the ER which I could pretty much do with my eyes closed, we found ourselves being asked the usual round of questions:
“Has your son ever broken a bone before?” Yes.
“Has he ever injured this arm before?” Yes.
“Has he been hurt before doing activities like this?” Yes.
Then came the dreaded question… “When?”
"If you just hang on a second, I’ll check my Facebook photos. Pretty sure I posted a photo of his x-ray to show the family. In fact, I’m posting about this visit right now. Just trying to tag the hospital name in the post. The Wi-Fi signal here sucks, by the way."
(Cue exasperated children rolling their eyes at the sight of their mother trying to trace important milestones by using her Facebook page).
I wish I had known at that time about Canada Health Infoway, a not-for-profit organization that is working to accelerate the adoption of digital health tools like online booking, health apps, electronic health records, renewing prescriptions online, lab results online, etc.
Parents like Cheryl, who has a daughter with special needs and uses electronic health records to make visits with her daughter’s health care providers more efficient.
Families today have something incredible they can use to help improve how we look after the ones we love, and that’s by using digital health tools. Parents can take control of their family's health by using technology in different ways like:
That’s pretty awesome. The more ways we can use technology to help take care of our families, the better. One of these ways is by checking out Better Health Together to learn how digital health is already working for many Canadians.
So the next time I’m being asked by someone when my kids' latest “Hey Mummy, look at me do THIS!” injury happened, I don’t have to look it up on Facebook.
And as for our little Razor-racer, he’s still scooting around like mad every chance he gets — usually under the watchful eye of our four-legged furry family member, who watches his every move.
You use tech to make the rest of your life more manageable. Now use it to manage your health as well. Here's how:
Dr. Kim Foster shares how your family doctor may be going high-tech.
Do you or someone in your family have diabetes? Learn how you can use your smartphone to manage it
Go high-tech with your medical history, prescriptions, and test results.
Learn more about the digital health tools available to you and your family and how they can help you take charge of your health care at www.betterhealthtogether.ca.
This is proudly sponsored by our friends at Canada Health Infoway: Better Health Together.
www.betterhealthtogether.ca
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