connect urban medical specialists with rural remote community doctorsProject D2D

Project Summary:

One of the most valuable assets for a doctor in diagnosis & treatment is a second opinion or "consult" with another doctor. But many remote communities here in Canada do not have enough doctors to facilitate such best practices. Studies show that only 9% of Canadian doctors currently service almost a quarter of our countries population that live in rural communities. Doctor-to-Doctor (D2D) is a smartphone software application that provides doctors instant, on-demand access to Canada's greatest medical specialists. Project D2D aims to connect doctors from across Canada and close the gap between rural and urban healthcare.

Deliverables:

-Finish the prototype
-Undertake an Alpha pilot in Ontario, featuring 100 doctors and 1000 calls answered
-Undertake a Beta pilot with over 1000 doctors signed up by the end of 2011
-Partnering with medical association and hospitals
-Build an advisory panel of doctors

A study by Canadian Institute for Health Information shows that 21% of the country's population live in rural communities of which only 9% of doctors currently service. Of these doctors, only 2% of them are medical specialists. Many doctors are hesitant to work in rural areas due to the lack of peer support, which requires these rural doctors to be "jack-of-all-trades" rather than specialists. Project D2D plans to close the gap in health care between rural remote communities and urban centres by connecting medical specialists from across Canada to doctors in need, allowing them to receive a second opinion. The D2D application will hopefully result in: (a) improved outcomes for our rural citizens and (b) a transfer of tacit knowledge to the remote resident doctors. By closing the “rural gap” between the level of care delivery received, this will improve the lives of all Canadians. This will increase the overall level of health care and lower the delivery costs to provide such care.