Protect, Support, Recover - the three words we’re most likely to hear from every doctor.  But this is the highlight of the 2020 Ontario Budget and that’s why it is special this time! 

The summary of Ontario Budget 2020 in one image

Source 

Key highlights of the 2020 Ontario Budget 

This will reveal which industry the government is more focused on and which industries are anticipated to get a boost due to the budget!

• Money for at-home school cost - Parents providing at-home education to kids will now get $200 per child under 12. This program is worth $380 million. 

• Tax credit for seniors - Seniors will now get reimbursement of 25% on their eligible renovations costing up to $10,000. 

• Tourism tax credit - The government is planning to create a tax credit for up to 20% of spending for visiting Ontario.

• Rural broadband - With the government allocating around $680 million to expand broadband access in Ontario, remote and rural areas will now be able to enjoy high-speed internet.  

The healthcare industry is still the priority for the government - the budget proves! 

Allocating the highest $2.5 billion for hospitals and the dedicated tweet from premier Doug Ford depicts that healthcare is the focused sector for the government. 

Ontario’s 2020 Budget was developed to support frontline health workers, protect our most vulnerable, and build the foundation for Ontario’s strong long-term economic recovery. #OntariosActionPlan #2020OntarioBudget #ONpoli pic.twitter.com/YnsafCHEWP

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) November 6, 2020

In the last 3 hours, I have discussed this with at least 7 Ontario-based healthcare-focused entrepreneurs and enterprises.  They all are anticipating that this fresh budget will boost technology adoption across the healthcare centres, especially in hospitals and long-term care homes.  Their only concern is whether the healthcare entities will be able to identify the new healthcare opportunities or they will misfire it. 

Top healthcare opportunities to seize with newly announced  budget 

Since the pandemic hit Canada, we have been learning a new lesson every day.  If we summarize all lessons, lack of technology adoption is the only reason our healthcare system is now cancelling surgeries to not exceed the healthcare system capacity by 100%.  Thus, our focus with the newly announced $2.5 billion for the healthcare sector should lie around technology adoption. 

• Telemedicine or Virtual Care

Only around 40% of Ontarians get timely access to healthcare services when they are sick.  A telemedicine app ensures that a patient can talk to a doctor within a few minutes.  With digital toolkit and EHR integration, it eases the operations of the healthcare providers and allows them to treat more patients in a given time.  A telemedicine app is the safest and easiest way to seek healthcare for people having chronic conditions and mental illness as they can have the best healthcare service without stepping out of the home. 

• Automation

The staff working in the hospital finds it more difficult to manage patients’ appointments, onboarding, medications, concerns, claims rather than patients’ health.  Over a period of time, they get busier with data management rather than patient treatment.  By automating system-based tasks with software robots, you will be able to reduce the administrative burdens that will ultimately create more time for healthcare professionals.  Healthcare professionals can now use this saved time for quality patient care. 

• Remote Patient Monitoring

Healthcare professionals are overburdened. They need to visit each bed individually and record the current biometric status of patients manually.  A remote patient monitoring system facilitates healthcare professionals to check the current as well as historic biometric values of patients from anywhere in the world through mobile phones.  Customized alerts and real-time automatic recordings make healthcare professionals respond quickly in case of an emergency.

• ePHI Security or Compliance

In 2019 alone, more than 28 million Canadians have been affected by the data breaches.  Hospitals, medical apps and ePHI they are storing have always been on the radar of hackers.  Though there are many privacy laws imposed at federal and state levels, we’re still lacking powerful data surveillance technologies and approaches to make sure ePHI security. 

They already released #OntarioActionPlan. It is time to prepare, release and execute #YourSuccessPlan.

We’re Ontario-based ‘healthcare technology scientists’. We don’t save lives. We save the efforts and time of our doctors - so that they can save more lives.  We spend 8 hours every day with the only aim that a doctor can use the complex healthcare technology within 8 seconds.  And we’re happy to announce that we made healthcare technologies like IoT, AI, machine learning, RPA as easy as running a music player.  More than 500 Ontario-based healthcare startups and enterprises have witnessed it in action and around 130 have implemented it so far this year.  They have been tagging it with ‘life-saving’ and ‘cost-saving’!