Health care challenges and successes in the Arctic circle

Health care delivery in remote Arctic environments has significant logistical, financial, health human resource and cross cultural challenges. Providing a standard of care to remote populations that is consistent with the expected standard in well developed countries is a major challenge. The workshop speakers will explore health care delivery systems in two remote circumpolar regions: Nunavut, an Inuit majority Territory in the Canadian Arctic; and from coastal and interior Northern Norway, territory of the Sami people and of small-scale primary industries. The speakers will then demonstrate how these systems respond to the health care needs of their respective populations. Successes and challenges will be compared for the two regions. These two presentations will take a maximum 40 minutes of the 90 minute workshop. At that point participants will be invited to provide a brief overview of their own practices and using an iterative process the group will identify common problem areas and solutions from one area that may be applicable in other remote regions. Examples of often underutilized modalities include telehealth, strategies to support clinicians in remote practice, development of a health care workforce reflective of the society being served, provision of high quality acute and primary care, the role of educational institutions in supporting remote areas. The workshop will provide an opportunity for networking and exploring common challenges and strategies for improving care in remote areas. The workshop will examine innovations and solutions which may be applicable to other regions.

This abstract was presented at the Innovative Solutions in Remote Healthcare - 'Rethinking Remote' conference, 23-24 May 2016, Inverness, Scotland.