From the CBC
Personalized health records could be on the way for our killer whale friends that share the coast with us.
The idea comes from Dr. Joe Gaydos, director of the SeaDoc Society who wants to combine all the research done on orcas in the Pacific Northwest into one massive database.
“You could imagine the confusion if you go to the hospital and have something going wrong and they say, well, we need to call your radiologist, but he’s out of town, we’ll get that tomorrow. We need to talk to your internist, but she’s not here right now,” Gaydos said in an interview with CBC’s On The Island. “This is one of the best studied wild populations in the world,” he continues. “But right now, all of these records are in different places.”
The idea is not a new one either. Gaydos received inspiration from the Gorilla Doctors program that tracks the health of over 400 gorillas in Africa.
Gaydos says he hopes to have the database up and running by next year, with collaborations from local governments, SeaDoc and The Vancouver Aquarium.