6 Celebrating Allied Health Professionals
SUPPLEMENT TO THE FREE PRESS • SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2025
Follow-ups for chronic conditions and cold or flu symptoms are now often addressed by Manitoba doctors as part of virtual visits with patients.
Studio Romantic / Adobe Stock
By Jim Bender D octors and patients alike have been saving time and money since the introduction of telehealth or virtual medicine. Virtual medicine is defined as the provision of medical care by means of electronic communication like phone or video, according to Doctors Manitoba, the professional organization which represents doctors in the province. Virtual visits w ere first covered in Manitoba in 2020 to help keep patients and doctors connected during the pandemic. However, Dr. Ravi Dookeran, an ophthalmologist with a sub-specialty in retinal surgery, brought teleopthalmol- ogy – “the remote delivery of eye care using telecommu- nications technology and digital medical equipment” – here about 22 years ago. “The way it started is that I was actually training in Mc- Gill in Montreal and one of my residents whom I trained with started this program in Alberta,” recalls Dookeran, who asked that resident to help set up the same program for Manitoba. “She had a nurse in place and she was flying up to these northern remote communities. We supplied her with a camera and got a server set up where I could ac- tually examine patients from Northern Manitoba from my living room in … Montreal. So, it was a slow start because I was going to school and doing this training. I was al- ready looking into this specialty training of my fellowship as a retinal surgeon.” Dookeran soon started making referrals to colleagues already in Winnipeg. “So, we were able to bypass really long wait times be- cause we were able to triage them and say, ‘Let’s get this patient down a little more urgently,’” Dookeran says. “We have a system where we are able to actually ex- amine diabetics remotely by nurses stationed up north. They fly up to northern communities and they do a series of steps in the eye exam, including vision, eye pressures. They take pictures of the front of the eye, then they do a whole series of 14 images of the back of the eye – special scans. They put it on a secure server, then we log into that server at a later date, and we examine the patient remote- ly. We have all of their medical information and some of their history, based on what the nurses have acquired.” Then, Dookeran and other doctors can evaluate those patients and decide whether or not they need to travel south for further examination or refer them to a different specialist, such as a cataract surgeon. In some cases, they may only need to get a pair of glasses. Telehealth has since expanded to other areas. A wide range of allied health care professionals in Manitoba can now provide telehealth services.That includes clinical psychologists, speech-language pathologists, nutrition- ists and clinical social workers. “There are other telehealth programs, like e-consults where people will do similar things,” Dookeran says. “They’ll upload pictures, a brief history and they can work on triaging the patients to determine whether they need to come down for examination or if they can go to a dif- ferent kind of specialist.”
Going the Distance TELEHEALTH PROVIDING MEDICAL CARE TO REMOTE COMMUNITIES
About 130,000-140,000 virtu- al visits are being delivered a month, including by family phy- sicians and allied health profes- sionals, Doctors Manitoba says. It adds that the best conditions or concerns for a virtual visit include: • follow-ups for chronic conditions • follow-ups to in-person visits with- in two weeks • cold/flu symptoms • eye problems • minor injuries, aches and pains • skin conditions
• sleep or mood problems • mental health concerns • medication questions
A wide range of allied health professionals in Manitoba can now assist patients via telehealth services. The list includes: • Art therapist • Clinical psychologist • Clinical social worker • Communicative disorders assistant • Dietitian • Nutritionist • Mental health counselor • Psychotherapist • Speech-language pathologist
lembergvector / Adobe Stock
“Medical problems that cannot be treated without an in-person examination are not suitable for virtual visits,” Doctors Manitoba says. Those include patients suffering from chest pains, shortness of breath, sudden weakness or numbness, and muscle and joint injuries. Patients are recommended to call their doctors to see whether an in-person or virtual visit is best suited to treat their ailments. There are more than 195 telehealth sites across Mani- toba, which offer “reduced time away from home or work to receive care, reduced costs and risks associated with travel, and improved access to health services that may not be available in your home community or region, ac- cording to the Manitoba Telehealth website. “Most of the major cities in Canada are located near the (U.S.) border and we still have a whole population up north that would not otherwise have access to us,” Doo- keran says. “So, this provides them access to sub-spe- cialty care and they’re able to do that closer to home, without the travel, without leaving their communities, their supports, that sort of thing.” ■
lembergvector / Adobe Stock
Powered by FlippingBook