Canada Health Infoway and OntarioMD Announce Collaboration Benefiting the EMR Vendor Community

(Toronto) – Today, Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and OntarioMD announced a collaboration aligning their respective certification programs to better serve the shared community of electronic medical record (EMR) vendors in Ontario.

The collaboration will examine the current overlapping of privacy and security requirements that exist between the two certification programs. To avoid duplication in testing, Infoway and OntarioMD will recognize and inherit the assessment results performed by each other on requirements that have been deemed equal or equivalent.

“Infoway and OntarioMD acknowledge the importance of the privacy and security of handling Canadians’ personal health information,” said Michael Green, President and CEO, Canada Health Infoway. “We’re pleased to collaborate with OntarioMD to bring this important benefit to our mutual clients.”

Infoway completed an extensive review and stakeholder consultation process for its certification program and introduced enhanced privacy and security requirements (2017 Edition) in February 2017.

OntarioMD's EMR Certification Program was established in 2001 to promote the adoption of EMRs by community-based physicians. Today, 80 per cent of primary care physicians in Ontario are using OntarioMD-certified EMRs. The OntarioMD EMR Certification Program recently announced a move to open certification enabling new entrants to apply for certification in Ontario at any time.

“With over 14,000 physicians using an EMR certified by OntarioMD and looking to realize more clinical value from their EMRs, OntarioMD has evolved its EMR Certification Program to better align with this objective,” said Sarah Hutchison, CEO, OntarioMD. “We are working with Canada Health Infoway to minimize the burden on EMR vendors who pursue EMR Certification by reducing duplication where the two EMR Certification programs overlap.”

The analysis and mapping exercise is underway and will conclude in early 2018.

About OntarioMD

OntarioMD is the leader in primary care digital health in Ontario and is a valuable system partner for other organizations who wish to implement their solutions to the primary care sector. It manages programs and services that connect physician practices that use certified EMRs to more patient data collected outside primary care settings. OntarioMD also supports Ontario’s physicians with practical advice from Peer Leaders and experienced Practice Advisors who help them optimize their EMR use to enhance patient care and achieve greater practice efficiency. The organization offers valuable, fully-accredited educational opportunities for physicians annually at the EMR Every Step Conference series.

Over 14,000 physicians are participating in OntarioMD services: Health Report Manager (HRM), eNotifications, Provincial eConsult Initiative, OLIS Deployment, EMR Physician Dashboard, Peer Leader Program, EMR Practice Enhancement Program, EMR Adoption Program. For more information about these services, please visit OntarioMD.ca.

About Canada Health Infoway

Infoway helps to improve the health of Canadians by working with partners to accelerate the development, adoption and effective use of digital health across Canada. Through our investments, we help deliver better quality and access to care and more efficient delivery of health services for patients and clinicians. Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government.

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For more information:

Haley Armstrong
Senior Director, Communications and Public Relations
Canada Health Infoway
647-713-9459
Email Us

Kathy Tudor
Director, Communications and Marketing
OntarioMD
Tel: (416) 623-1248 ext. 5460
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www.ontariomd.ca
@ontarioEMRs