Technology touts VIRTUES of patient-centred care

The VIRTUES platform, developed by the team at CANet, enables health-care providers to monitor and manage patients' conditions remotely. (Photo courtesy of Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry) Dr. Anthony Tang envisions a not-so-distant future where sensors, voice recognition, cloud-computing and data analytics are a routine part of the health-care experience. "The grand vision is that we can make a diagnosis, follow a patient's progress and allow management to occur wherever they are," said Tang. "This is about empowering patients in their own health care." As the scientific director and CEO of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet) at Western University, Tang is focused on innovative solutions to help patients manage their complex medical conditions. Collaborating with investigators across the country, CANet is leading the expansion, testing and clinical integration of a digital health platform called VIRTUES (virtual integrated reliable transformative user-driven e-health system). VIRTUES delivers efficient, effective and accessible health care, on-demand and tailored to the specific needs of each patient. It provides a patient-owned, cloud-based solution that integrates symptoms, remote monitoring data, and historic health data.