Nova Scotia Health’s Innovation Hub has launched a six-month pilot program with Virtual Hallway, a Nova Scotian company that connects primary care providers with specialists to improve patient access to specialist care.
Virtual Hallway aims to improve patient access to specialist care by facilitating rapid specialist phone consults for family doctors and nurse practitioners while also saving time and effort.
As the largest academic health sciences network in Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia Health is committed to building capacity in our healthcare workforce through supporting a culture of lifelong learning and professional development across all areas of health. A critical component of learning is placements for students at Nova Scotia Health, which ensure that this new generation of health care professionals can successfully join the workforce.
Mental health challenges have materialized or worsened for many since the onset of COVID-19. Feelings of anxiety, loneliness and uncertainty have attributed to a shift in our baseline mental state. Throughout the pandemic, the accelerated adoption of virtual care is one solution that has been instrumental in supporting people in need.
“It felt like the little mosquito in my mind was just getting a bit louder,” said Jade Nauss who sportively refers to her generalized anxiety disorder as “Tito,” inspired by the character “The Anxiety Mosquito,” representing anxiety in humans in the hit animated show “Big Mouth.” Nauss lives in Halifax and enjoys hanging out with friends, snuggling with her cats, relaxing with Netflix and trying new local ciders at patios on the weekends.
Throughout her nursing career, Elizabeth Hobson, nurse practitioner, has seen many Nova Scotians who were negatively impacted by not having a primary care provider.
Knowing how challenging this can be for a patient, she was excited about the opportunity to become a nurse practitioner with VirtualCareNS.
As a nurse for over ten years, Abigail Sawler, now a Nurse Practitioner, has cared for many people who did not have a primary care provider.
When she heard about VirtualCareNS, she was interested in the opportunity to provide primary care to unattached people in such an innovative way.
VirtualCareNS is a pilot program led by Nova Scotia Health’s Innovation Hub in partnership with Nova Scotia Health’s Primary Health Care team, IM/IT team, and other health system partners, which provides free, temporary access to primary medical care for people on the Need a Family Practice Registry. Through VirtualCareNS, people on the registry can make a same-day virtual medical appointment for their primary health care needs.
Senior leaders from the four Atlantic provinces are jointly announcing the Atlantic Clinical Trials Network (ACTN) later today at the BIO International Convention in San Diego, the world’s largest event focused on biotechnology.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care providers across the globe faced an irrepressible challenge – how can patients continue to access care in a way that mitigates the risk of spreading the virus? The province of Nova Scotia responded to this challenge quickly by pivoting to expand the use of virtual care technology to reduce in-person visits.
Nova Scotia Health’s Eastern Zone and Emergency Health Services (EHS) are partnering to provide virtual physician support to some rural emergency departments within the zone.
As a diplomat’s daughter, Dr. Sarah Tennant has lived in many places. Born in Ottawa, she grew up in Tokyo, Chicago, New York, Toronto, and Vancouver. Despite her extensive travels, Dr. Tennant picked Nova Scotia to call home.
Dr. Tennant completed her medical doctorate at the University of British Columbia as part of the second cohort in the Northern Medical Program in Prince George, BC. After medical school, she set off to experience East Coast living and completed her family medicine residency training in Prince Edward Island. As so many of us do, she fell in love with this part of Canada.
