Space age health clinic coming to Montreal's West Island

The health-care system used by the Canadian Space Agency has touched down in Pierrefonds as part of a pilot project in Montreal’s West Island.

A new "Autonomous Care Unit" was unveiled Monday to ease the demands on the local health-care system.

Standing in front of a screen and holding sensors in your hands, the hi-tech unit that takes your vitals and assesses your health.

It's the same technology astronauts like David Saint-Jacques used in space.

“It’s to increase the level of autonomy to take care of your own health,” he said. “That starts with monitoring, and that starts ideally with some kind of computer system with artificial intelligence that can at least tell you if you're sick or not sick, and, if you're sick, we're going to get a human involved somehow; maybe a nurse and eventually a physician.”

The newly installed point of care station in the Pierrefonds CLSC scans the user and flags any concerns within minutes.

Pierrefonds-Dollard federal MP Sameer Zuberi explained that the new telemedicine is called Connected Care Medical Module, or C2M2.

“It is meant to develop integrated and easily deployable systems, bring together different medical technologies to address specific health issues,” he said.

The station will especially target preventable diseases and health issues that can be urgent or not.

The local health authority (CIUSSS) says that the user will get the info right away.

“One of the big challenges that you have is patients waiting on waiting lists who could be healthy, but some of them could be ill, as you'll see through some of the visits,” said CIUSSS West Island spokesperson Dan Gabay. “The objective really is to be able to give access to reviews through different health-care markers.”

BAUNE is the company that makes the technology. CEO and co-founder Andrea Galindo said this kind of tele-health system can be extremely helpful in remote communities.

“It can be an answer to alleviating Canada’s primary care shortage, especially in underserved and communities where accessibility is limited,” she said. “It also helps bring health care to anyone, anywhere.”

Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis pointed out 20,000 West Islanders have trouble seeing a doctor.

“The state of health care in Quebec, we know the lack of doctors and the lack of care in general that we get,” he said. “[This] only adds another tool for us to be able to get diagnosed properly and find the care that follows thereafter.”

There is no timeline on when the first patients get to use the C2M2.