A Blueprint for Interoperability in Canadian Health Care Systems

An industry sector that has been criticized for being behind the curve in IT developments, the health care sector, has received a benchmark for interoperability.   A Canadian NGO, Canada Health Infoway, has consulted with 300 experts in the field and produced what it calls its Electronic Health Record Solution (EHRS) Blueprint. From an IT perspective, the greatest challenge in health care is the multiplicity of parties that can be involved in patient diagnosis, care and treatment.   Apart from a patient and one or more doctors, others involved can include paramedical staff, nurses, other health care workers, drug researchers and manufacturers, pharmacists, and hospital staff.   Many of these parties maintain their own records regarding a patient and much of this data is not readily available to the other players. The news release announcing the EHRS Blueprint zeros in on the key factor of interoperability:

"Interoperability is central to Infoway's mission, making clinical data available across the continuum of care and across health delivery organizations and regions.   The Blueprint promotes reusable and replicable solutions that can be ... deployed across the country more cost-efficiently."

Some of Infoway's current investments involve projects related to client registries, drug information systems and shared diagnostic imaging systems.   According to its web site, Infoway seeks strategic alliances with private sector parties such as IT companies and financial investors. For more information about Infoway and the complete text of the EHRS Blueprint, visit the Infoway web site at: http://www.infoway-inforoute.ca. Summary by:   Tina Nanov