Picture this common occurrence: A motor vehicle crashes somewhere in Canada, and police and paramedics arrive on the scene about the same time.

Police can punch in the vehicle licence number or the names of passengers and instantly get a wealth of information: address, next-of-kin, criminal record.

The paramedics, for their part, operate blind. Unless the injured are wearing MedicAlert bracelets, nothing is known of their medical history, not even basics like blood type.

The crucial difference?

Every police cruiser is equipped with a computer that links up to a database through a secure wireless network. Every licensed driver, every car owner, every criminal has an electronic record. Accessing those records is an essential tool for police work.

But paramedics have no remote access to patient records and potentially lifesaving information. Neither do doctors.

And this vital information is usually not available in hospitals or doctors' offices either, let alone at the scene of a crash, or when a person collapses at home.

Canada has a $160-billion-a-year health system, but still relies overwhelmingly on archaic paper records.

For the most part, patients do not have electronic health records and, even where they do, access is fairly localized.

Michael Kedar, president of Mobilexchange Ltd., wants that to change. A cellular phone pioneer (he founded Call-Net, which later became Sprint Canada) and business visionary (he led the fight to deregulate the long-distance market), he knows telecommunications, and wireless in particular.

At age 66, Mr. Kedar also knows that his use of health-care services will only grow. "I'm concerned about inefficiency. I'm concerned that my doctors won't have access to my records when they're needed," he said in an interview.

So Mr. Kedar is proposing the creation of a Secure Wireless Health Network (SWHN - pronounced "swan"). Essentially, the idea is to set aside a portion of the wireless spectrum for health-care needs, creating a platform for electronic health records and various other information technologies.

There are precedents for this: Police, the military, railways and the aviation sector all have secure wireless networks. But curiously, health, our biggest industry of all, does not.

Security, or privacy, is a concern if we are going to transmit health information over a cellular network. But Mr. Kedar stresses that information would be encrypted and access to SWHN would be limited to health professionals in specific circumstances. Making the system dedicated also makes it more secure.

"When the military guides a missile, the signal is wireless. This will be military-grade security," Mr. Kedar said.

Of course, a lot needs to happen before there is a wireless infrastructure in which information can be shared across health-care settings and among varied providers and where a central up-to-date file follows the patient instead of being tucked away in inaccessible nooks and crannies scattered through the system.

First and foremost is getting the "space" in the wireless world.

In 2008, the federal government is going to auction off the remaining part of the 2 Gigahertz wireless spectrum (the cellular radio band) in Canada.

The selloff of wireless spectrum is an opportunity for the technology behemoths like Bell, Rogers and Telus to gobble up more of the invisible network so their clients can indulge in Facebook, BlackBerry use and other electronic obsessions.

It is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a SWHN, to use wireless for social good and to improve the health system in a concrete fashion.

The wireless providers already have about 180 megahertz on the spectrum - much of it unused. Ottawa is going to auction off up to 105 MHz more, a sale that is expected to bring in between $1-billion and $1.5-billion. (The big three will pay big bucks, not because they need additional capacity but to keep competitors out of the market.)

Mr. Kedar's proposal is simple: Set aside a little less than half that amount for SWHN, about 50 MHz.

That would be the platform. Then, give the provinces five years to get their act together, to commit to using the uniform network and invest in the technology (which they are already doing), then call for tenders for wireless companies to construct and operate the Secure Wireless Health Network.

The cost to the government is minimal. It would forgo about $500-million in revenue, at least in the short term.

But that money - a trifling amount in the overall $160-billion health budget and a small portion of the estimated $10-billion needed to create electronic health records - would soon be recouped in efficiencies.

More importantly, by setting aside part of the wireless spectrum for essential health-care needs, the federal government could show leadership and vision.

It could, with the stroke of a pen, bring IT and telecommunications in the health system into the 21st century, and provide a tremendous benefit to Canadians along with it.