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Health research institute connects satellite sites through ORION network

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The Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), which helps policy makers and researchers shape the future of the Ontario healthcare system, is the latest organization to join the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION). ORION is the province’s ultra high speed fibre optic network connecting Ontario to the global grid of research and education (R&E) networks.

“ICES has built its reputation by developing a capacity to perform advanced analysis to measure the performance of Ontario’s healthcare system and better understand the shifting needs of Ontarians. The expansion of our program across the province will benefit Ontario’s health system by enhancing access to new health data sets and create the largest collaboration of researchers of its kind worldwide,” says David Henry, CEO at ICES.

ICES plays a key role in providing scientific insights to help policy makers, managers, planners, practitioners and other researchers shape the future direction of the Ontario healthcare system. Its unbiased, evidence-based knowledge and recommendations, profiled in atlases, investigative reports, and peer-reviewed journals, are used to guide decision-making and inform changes in healthcare delivery.

“It is encouraging to see institutions like ICES recognize the value of the special capabilities of the ORION network to advance and support their own goals and priorities,” says David Koa, Senior Director, Partnerships and Strategic Alliances at ORION.

Located in Toronto, ICES is also the first member to use ORION’s Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS). VPLS delivers a multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet service. It allows multiple Ethernet LANs from different sites to be connected together across the ORION network, thereby emulating a single Ethernet LAN segment for that member. ICES will connect three satellite sites and two main database sites to this private network with an expansion plan that includes more sites in the future.

About ORION
The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), a not-for-profit organization, is Ontario’s ultra high-speed research and education network which connects all of Ontario's universities, most colleges, several medical and other public research facilities and a growing number of school boards to one another and to the global grid of research and education networks. Stretching 5,800 kilometres over 21 communities throughout Ontario, ORION connects over one million Ontario researchers, scientists, students, teachers and staff to critical infrastructure for research, education and innovation. Visit www.orion.on.ca.

About ICES
ICES is an independent, non-profit organization that uses population-based health information to produce knowledge on a broad range of healthcare issues. Its unbiased evidence provides measures of health system performance, a clearer understanding of the shifting healthcare needs of Ontarians, and a stimulus for discussion of practical solutions to optimize scarce resources. ICES knowledge is highly regarded in Canada and abroad, and is widely used by government, hospitals, planners, and practitioners to make decisions about healthcare delivery and to develop policy. Visit www.ices.on.ca.

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