Objectives

To promote existing, publicly funded consumer health information resources and services to Nova Scotians, making it simpler for them to see what their provincial and federal governments have already made available to them.

To identify the roles and responsibilities of organizations funded by the Nova Scotia and Canadian governments to provide consumer health information to Nova Scotians, and help ensure that unnecessary duplication does not occur.

Scope

The Nova Scotia Health Network will link and provide access to existing publicly funded consumer health information services and resources available to Nova Scotians. These include:

• Infotrac Health & Wellness Resource Center, a commercial database of full-text books and journals in health and medicine
• Books and audiovisual material that public libraries acquire on behalf of health care consumers
• Nova Scotia Provincial Library’s reference service
• Subject access to the quality health information identified by the Canadian Health Network and the US National Library of Medicine

Use Canadian Health Network directory infrastructure to manage and provide access to Nova Scotia’s Community Health Board resource inventories.

Provide a central indexing infrastructure for health information written by Nova Scotia health care workers that has been published on District Health Authority, IWK Health Centre, or Medical Society of Nova Scotia www sites.

References

• Publications, presentations, reports, awards and news items related to the Western Health Information Partnership Model, 1996-2001.
• Notes from “Scotia Health Information Project” Meeting, May 10, 2000.
• Scotia Health Information Project “One Pager”, Laura Jantek and Caren Mofford, Spring 2000.
• Nova Scotia Health Network: Health Information You Can Trust. Funding Proposal November, 2000.
• Meeting Notes, Nova Scotia Health Information (NSHN) Steering Committee December 8, 2000.
• Submission to Canadian Rural Partnership (CRP) Pilot Projects Initiative, April 2001.
• WHIP Evaluation Reports, with Recommendations, Phases II and I. Faculty, Yarmouth School of Nursing, December 1999 and June 2001.
• Discussions between Trudy Amirault and Randy Barkhouse, Director Dalhousie University Computing and Dalhousie’s agreement to host NSHN and provide infrastructure for consumer health information.
• Community Health Board Wellness Directory Pilot Project Outline, May 2001.
• Nova Scotia Health Network - PowerPoint Presentation to Department of Health, July 2001.

Background

Although there are many publicly funded organizations in Nova Scotia that currently provide consumer health information, the province does not presently have a coordinated approach that brings these activities together. The Nova Scotia government has an established infrastructure to meet the information needs of the public in the form of public libraries throughout the province, and a strong tradition of resource sharing among all libraries.

The Nova Scotia Health Network (NSHN) will build on that tradition by establishing a partnership of all publicly funded consumer health information providers, each with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. The result will be a virtual, high-quality web-based consumer health information service for Nova Scotians.

The Nova Scotia Health Network will sit on Dalhousie University's server, courtesy of their Carleton CAP project, and follow the Western Health Information Partnership Model (1996-2001). NSHN will work with and complement the Canadian Health Network (CHN), launched in 1999 by Health Canada to provide quality consumer health information across Canada.

Pressures, Priorities and Risks

The priorities and risks identified to date for this project are:

High

• The Nova Scotia Health Network has province-wide representation through its Steering Committee and Advisory Committee membership, but outside western Nova Scotia, very minimal representation from the Nova Scotia health care system.
• A key to project success is endorsement from the NS Department of Health (please see section 6.3 below).
• Although Dalhousie Academic Computing and the Canadian Health Network have offered to provide training in use of their own components, if funding does not come through from the Canadian Rural Partnership (CRP) Pilot Projects Initiative, the NSHN Steering Committee will need to resume the search for funding to market the site and train stakeholders in using it.

Medium

• We are not aware of other infrastructure planned or in place to support Nova Scotia Community Health Boards in their work of creating and maintaining resources inventories. Although it is unlikely that this could be achieved more efficiently or cost effectively than by using Canadian Health Network infrastructure, there is a risk that public dollars will be expended by separate DHAs and CHBs in search of necessary support.
• We are not aware of other infrastructure planned or in place to support Nova Scotia DHAs developing their www sites in areas that relate to patient education and consumer health information. Although it is unlikely that this could be achieved more efficiently or cost effectively than by using Dalhousie University Computing’s infrastructure, there is a risk that public dollars will be expended DHAs independently developing their own strategies.
• NSHN participants do evaluate their own resource or service component. The Dalhousie School of Nursing, Yarmouth Site, has indicated willingness to handle an overall evaluation of the NSHN, funding to do this is needed.
• Appropriate standards for health care centres to follow in publishing health information must be determined and distributed.

Low

• There is a chance that there will be demand for more features, resources and services available from the Nova Scotia Health Network site.

Organization: Approvals and Responsibilities

The Nova Scotia Health Network is a cooperative site. Partnering organizations are responsible for marketing, training and evaluating their own components.

The Nova Scotia Health Network pulls together existing resources and services that have already been approved by the organizations that manage and provide them.

Project organization, roles and responsibilities follow:

Project Deliverables and Quality Objectives

Deliverables will include:

• A www site, with links to resources following the WHIP model.
• A training plan (adapted from WHIP training plan).
• A marketing plan (a marketing plan adapted from WHIP marketing plan).
• An evaluation plan (adapted from WHIP evaluation plan).

Project Schedule (proposed)

• The NSHN site will be linked from public library www sites in mid-September, 2001.
• The Western Health Information Partnership site will be removed from the www in   mid-September, 2001.
• Timelines for remaining tasks will be as outlined in the proposal to the Canadian Rural Partnership (CRP) Pilot Projects Initiative if/when funding has been received.

Dependencies

Progress with plans for NSHN training, marketing and evaluation depends on additional funding.

Health care system buy-in depends on endorsement from the Department of Health.

Plans for Support Activities

No additional activities are planned for this project.