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Following a much anticipated event held by Canada Health Infoway on October 28th, the following information and slide decks were posted.

The event was an information session for health IT vendors to provide up-to-date information on:

• Infoway's investment strategies and the potential business opportunities they provide;
• the evolution of Infoway's architectural blueprint;
• Infoway's progress around providing certification services; and
• the recently launched public education campaign.

Why anticipated? Well, because they were supposed to shine a light on the fate of some $380 million in funding that is to be dedicated to uptake and use of EMRs by physicians and other frontline providers.

What is my impression, having gone through the slide decks? I am totally underwhelmed! Instead of clarity, there is more of the same old Infoway spin on what a great job they are doing.

What caught my eye in particular?

1. In the Business Update presented by Trevor Hodge, Senior Vice President, Canada Health Infoway, what little detail exists on the new funding for EMRs (see slides 19-24), there is almost zero detail on what is going to take place with EMR vendor 'specifications'. Exactly what is going to be specified and how will it take place? That is what people need to hear. A 12-18 month time frame for this to occur? Come on now, Infoway has had almost 2 years to brew up some strategies in terms of what needs to happen with the funding. Why is this going to take so long and will it help users and patients or simply become more noise as vendors, programs and physicians try to make sense of what to do?
2. One bright light in Mr. Hodge's presentation. On slide 22, he makes reference to 'Regional Health Data' exchanges for services such as referral management. However, when I went through the next slide deck by Ron Parker, Group Director Solution Products Group entitled "The Next Iteration of the Infoway EHRS Blueprint" (slides 16 or 18), there is no reflection of any external health data exchanges (other than the HIAL). I am not sure if this is an error or whether external health data exchanges actually do not really fit into Infoway's vision. While this may seem like a small item, it is actually quite a glaring omission.
3. Next was Shelagh Maloney's presentation on Infoway's certification services. While I agree with the concept of certification, what is wrong with this picture? After 2 years and the development of seven different certification categories, only 1 solution has been certified? TELUS health space powered by Microsoft HealthVault. Ms. Maloney states, "Infoway is currently in discussion with a number of vendors who are interested in certification, particularly in the consumer health application, drug and DI domains." I think we have to do better if we are going to build a vibrant EMR/EHR/Health IT market in Canada.

Click here to learn more: Health Care IT Solution Providers Information Session - Canada Health Infoway

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Read More: http://blog.canadianemr.ca/canadianemr/2010/11/health-care-it-solution-providers-information-session.html