MRI access for Indigenous
- kelseyphelan3
- Jul 17, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 24, 2022
One of the vulnerable populations in the Indigenous community. One of the issues is access to hospitals or certain types of testing. Medical imaging equipment is very expensive and requires specialized training to operate. Some Indigenous communities are very isolated so they don’t have easy access to transportation. That delays diagnosis and treatment. Many smaller facilities have X-ray services. The more expensive modalities such as CT, MRI,Nuc Med, and Cancer Treatment are only available at large sites.
Here on PEI we have 7 hospitals. Two main hospitals are QEH and PCH. The four community hospitals: Souris Hospital, KCMH, O’leary Hospital, and Western Hospital. Hillsborough is the one in-patient psychiatric facility. The two main hospitals have X-ray, Mammography, US, and CT. Only QEH has MRI, Nuclear Med, and Cancer treatment. QEH has the one MRI machine for the entire province so everyone has to travel there to get an MRI. The community hospitals only have X-ray services. The in-patient psychiatric facility does not have any medical imaging services but it is located right beside the QEH where all services are available. PEI is quite rural and doesn’t have much public transportation outside of the two main cities. I couldn’t find any resources stating whether Indigenous communities or any other vulnerable groups had trouble accessing services. I know from personal experience that Indigenous groups do get some reimbursement from the government for coming to appointments. They still have to find a way to get there. Some patients require Pat and the Elephant for transportation but it can be very costly. We try to group some patients' tests on the same day so they don’t have to make as many trips but sometimes that doesn’t work out.
In Saskatoon, the James Smith Cree Nation partnered with DR Links Holdings Inc. and Siemens Healthineers Canada to launch a new clinic. This new clinic provides medical imaging services: MRI,CT, X-ray and US. This clinic services the JSCN and other people in Saskatchewan. The clinic also has an education and research centre. This will make a huge difference for the people in this area and surrounding areas. They will be diagnosed earlier and receive treatment sooner. In the long term that will save money. Having the JSCN directly involved will create a safe environment that people can trust and will encourage them to have the testing they need. The educational component will focus on training new and future people to work in medical imaging. They hope to inspire youth from the James Smith Cree Nation and other Indigenous groups to pursue a post secondary education possibly in the medical imaging field. The education and research centre will focus on Indigenous health issues and specific health needs of locals. This could help Indigenous people across Canada (Canadian Healthcare Technology,2020).
Dr Omar Islam a researcher at Queen’s University found another way to bring MRI testing to isolated areas of Northern Ontario. Queens provides care for the Indigenous population in the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) – Moose Factory and surrounding communities – in Northern Ontario. In 2019, Dr Islam was at an international radiology conference where he was introduced to a portable MRI scanner. Currently, people in these areas take a medically chartered flight to access this type of care. Statistics show that up to 60% of critically ill patients have adverse events related to that transportation. Dr. Islam and team received approval for a year-long study on the impact of the portable MRI within the WAHA community. They hope to prove that this access improves overall health of the people in these communities and decreases healthcare costs.’This project is a perfect marriage between innovation and delivery of high-quality patient care,” says Dr. Islam. “It serves as a practical example of using technological advances to jumpstart health care innovation for those in our society disadvantaged by lack of access, geographical barriers, and financial constraints. Through this work we hope to help narrow the health care access gap that currently exists between remote communities in Canada’s north and large urban centres’ (Klassen,2022).
Creating different types of accessibility is key to providing quality care for these vulnerable groups. Having a clinic with an education and research centre focused on Indigenous issues can create change for Indigenous people across Canada. I will be interested to see how the study with the portable MRI goes in Northern Ontario. That could be useful in many areas across Canada. It could be used for other vulnerable populations: the elderly and people with mental illness. They wouldn’t have to be transported; this would cause less disruption and less risk to the patients. My hope is that we can continue to create more equality in healthcare.
References
Canadian Healthcare Technology. (2020, December 9). Indigenous peoples launch
imaging clinic.https://www.canhealth.com/2020/12/09/indigenous-peoples
Klassen,V. (2022, January 14). Narrowing the gap in health care access. Queen’s
Ryan,C. (2022,June 28). Some Hillsborough Hospital patients face 2 moves as P.E.I.’s mental
health network changes. CBC News PEI.https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-
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