Saskatchewan residents can now see a doctor for their health care needs on a virtual platform. The provincial government signed a $4.8-million contract with Lumeca, a company that will provide the virtual visits system to deliver health care virtually for clinicians and care providers to residents.
“This partnership will not only support health innovation but also local experts, local jobs and contribute to Saskatchewan’s Growth Plan,” stated Premier Scott Moe in a media release. “We look forward to seeing Lumeca scale and bring success at home and abroad.”
The service was first introduced to Saskatchewan in 2019 but was discontinued in December 2021. The new platform replaces the former tool used by health-care providers during the pandemic.
“We suspended operations in December to focus our efforts exclusively on delivering the software to the province so the service has been unavailable,” said Lumeca Health Inc. CEO Tom Douglass.
“What’s going to happen now, it’s not the Lumeca app you knew before, it’ll be a new app, using the Lumeca software for the Government of Saskatchewan. So, it’ll be a new platform, but with the technology that everyone in Saskatchewan knows and loves already.”
There will be a website app as well as one for Apple/Android available for health-care provider and patient use in the coming months.
The Lumeca virtual health-care service has been utilized by the Cowessess First Nation since the Spring of 2020. According to the chief, having this service widespread and available to all in the province is something great for Saskatchewan.
“Having worked with Lumeca in the past, I can confidently say this will be great for Saskatchewan,” stated Chief Cadmus Delorme of Cowessess First Nation.
Lumeca said they are extremely excited for what the future holds and to help people in Saskatchewan.
“This is a new era and it opens a large door of possibilities, and we’re just very grateful to have this opportunity to work with the (Saskatchewan Health Authority), the Ministry of Health and E-health and to be able to make virtual care awesome,” said Douglass.
Douglass says details about the rollout to come.