Electronic Health Records for Provinces and Territories
Making it happen: building EHR systems in your province or territory
It all starts with a desire and an initiative to improve health delivery in a region or community. Across the country, with financial and strategic assistance from Canada Health Infoway (Infoway), innovators in government and IT are building solutions that will form part of Canada’s growing network of electronic health record (EHR) systems.
System by system, community by community, provinces and territories are making EHRs happen for Canadians, fuelled by local initiatives such as patient registries, diagnostic imaging repositories and telehealth solutions.
These jurisdictional initiatives are supported by pan-Canadian projects, such as the creation of messaging and terminology standards that will enable all systems to communicate seamlessly.
Infoway: investing in an interoperable network of EHR systems
Infoway collaborates with federal, provincial, and territorial governments to accelerate the use of EHR systems across the country. As a strategic investor, Infoway co-invests up to 75 per cent of a project’s eligible costs, with the provinces and territories funding the balance. Learn more about how Infoway funds projects.
Working together: jurisdictions and IT specialists
In each province and territory, private and public sector specialists are bringing health care and IT expertise together to plan, build, develop and implement EHR solutions. This collaboration combines two distinct types of knowledge: specialized technological expertise and an awareness of the health care needs in a specific community or population.
Health information technology vendors entering the Canadian consumer health solution market can now apply for pre-implementation certification for their Consumer Health Platforms, the first Certification Service offering from Infoway. Certification will ensure consumer health solutions comply with pan-Canadian functionality, privacy, security, interoperability and management standards and complement and leverage Canada’s investments in electronic health records.
Organizations investing in certified solutions can expect a high degree of confidence that the products they are investing in are in conformance with pan-Canadian standards in use throughout the Canadian health care system. Read more.
The Blueprint: establishing a framework for interoperable EHRs
In addition to investments in EHR solutions projects, Infoway has developed the EHRS Blueprint, which serves as the framework for an interoperable EHR. This document ensures that Canada’s EHR network is made up of secure, fast, connected systems and defines how these systems will share, access, manage and safeguard Canadians’ essential health care information. Log in to KnowledgeWay to read the Blueprint.
Standards Collaborative, ensuring standards and best practices
In order to interoperate, it is essential that Canada's EHR systems use pan Canadian standards to exchange health data. The Standards Collaborative supports and sustains health information standards and fosters collaboration to accelerate the implementation of pan-Canadian standards based solutions.
To learn more about health information standards, download the Standards Collaborative Guide. Also see the Standards Resources and Tools page for valuable links to domestic and international standards, resources and tools.
Already seeing the impact…
As jurisdictional and pan-Canadian EHR solutions projects gain momentum, administrators, patients and health care professionals are already experiencing benefits – some subtle, some more profound – of Canada’s growing network of EHR systems.
Among other benefits, EHRs will lead to:
- Shorter wait times and fewer repeat tests, thanks to faster lab and radiology results and reduced duplication of tests. Learn more about the benefits of digital diagnostic imaging systems.
- New tools to manage chronic diseases, enabling patients and health care providers to share knowledge and work together.
- Better overall care, because health care professionals will save time on administration, giving them more time to devote to patients.
- Safer drugs prescribing, enabled because pharmacists will have complete patient information, making it easier for them to identify potential risks.
- Better infectious disease outbreak control, through access to more information about potential public health issues, trends and opportunities.
Learn more about Canada's EHR
Find out how communities across Canada are already benefiting from EHRs.
Watch and read EHR success stories.
Learn more about what provinces and territories are doing to bring electronic health
records to their communities.
View the EHR Progress Map.
All regional and pan-Canadian EHR initiatives fall under specific investment programs
representing different health care domains.
Find out more about
Infoway's investment programs.
Access more information about the creation of Canada’s EHR network.
Visit Infoway's Resource
Centre.
Learn about the strategy to guide the future of investment in health care information systems.
Read Vision 2015: Advancing Canada's Next Generation of Health Care.
Read Infoway's 2010-2009 Business Plan.
Download Unlocking the clinical value of health information systems.