The%20Status%20of%20Health%20IT%20in%20British%20Columbia

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The Status of Health IT in British Columbia
Elaine McKnight
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The Status of Health IT in British Columbia

• Welcome to British Columbia and the 22nd Annual
  Health Level 7 Business Meeting and Plenary in
  Vancouver.
• Elaine McKnight, Assistant Deputy Minister
• Health Sector IM/IT Division
• Ministry of Health

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The Status of Health IT in British Columbia

• BC has been a strong supporter of HL7 since the
  early 1990s.
• We strongly believe that it is through standards
  such as HL7 that we can realize the vision of
  health information being
• accessible where it is needed
• when it is needed
• in a secure and confidential manner
• That is central to our BCs Health IT programs.

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History of HL7 in BC

• BC began using HL7 with the design of PharmaNet
  in 1992.
• It was founded on HL7 to enable point of service
  access to pharmacies.
• In 1995, we deployed PharmaNet province wide.
  Today it
• handles 50 million transactions annually
• enables providers in the province to access
  medication profiles
• conduct drug interaction checks
• process co-insurance claims
• All in a secure manner that protects citizens
  privacy.

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History of HL7 in BC

• In the late 1990s we used HL7 to enable access
  to the provincial health client registry the
  registry that contains basic demographic
  information for all individuals who have received
  health services in the province.
• We also used HL7 to enable access to public
  medical service insurance eligibility checking.

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History of HL7 in BC

• In the early 2000s, BC developed a provider
  registry application for use by four western
  Canadian provinces using HL7.
• This provider registry message set now forms the
  international specification for provider registry
  interaction.

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History of HL7 in BC

• Beginning in 2003, British Columbia began the
  transition to HL7 Version 3.
• We developed an expanded and enhanced client
  registry and enabled access using version 3
  messages.
• We added version 3 message support to the
  provider registry.

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History of HL7 in BC

• We were heavily involved in the Canada wide work
  on the version 3 message specifications for the
  electronic health record.
• We continue to participate at the HL7
  International level.

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The Status of Health IT in British Columbia

• What is BC doing today?

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The Status of Health IT in British Columbia

• We are working to provide an integrated,
  interoperable electronic systems
• To facilitate health care information being
  accessible, when and where it is needed.
• To support personal health, health care decision
  making and health system sustainability.

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The Status of Health IT in British Columbia

• Focusing on collaboration and integrated planning
  and delivery
• Integrated planning between the health
  authorities, the Ministry and provider
  organizations will ensure a focused, sustainable
  and responsible approach to realizing the eHealth
  vision
• Integrated planning between BC and other
  provincial and national jurisdictions will enable
  Canadas electronic health record, strengthening
  Canadas health system

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Building Today

• With investment from Canada Health Infoway, we
  have launched a series of projects aimed at
  establishing provincial electronic health record
  facilities based on common standards that will be
  used across Canada.
• HL7 Version 3 is a key foundational standard for
  these initiatives.

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Building Today

• We are undertaking major initiatives in the areas
  of common infrastructure, information
  repositories and point of service systems.

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Building Today

• For common infrastructure we are building
• a consistent, secure front door to electronic
  health record services that will provide
  consistent and secure HL7 Version 3 message
  handling
• a series of integrated, secure health networks,
  to support message based provincial electronic
  health services

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Building Today

• We are working at a provincial level to develop
  identity management standards, policies and
  practices for both citizens and providers.
• This common infrastructure will enable point of
  service systems from around the province to
  consistently and securely access an individuals
  electronic health record.

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Building Today

• For information repositories, we are
• building the foundation that will form the
  electronic health record
• implementing a lab results repository that will
  be capable of collecting and presenting and
  distributing lab test results

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Building Today

• Rebuilding the provincial pharmacy system to
  enable new features such as electronic
  prescribing.
• We are implementing an immunization, diagnostic
  image and results repositories.
• Our eventual goal is to enable electronic order
  entry throughout all services

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Building Today

• For point of service
• We are developing a pan Canadian public health
  surveillance application in partnership with
  Canada Health Infoway.
• It will enable management of outbreaks,
  communicable disease cases, immunizations,
  vaccine inventories, health alerts, and related
  workflow.

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Building Today

• We are also implementing new public health point
  of service applications for surveillance, family
  health and health protection and integrating
  these into the provincial electronic health
  record infrastructure.
• We are working with our provincial health
  authorities to integrate electronic health record
  services into local clinical and lab information
  systems.

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Building Today

• We are supporting the standardization of
  Electronic Medical Record applications within the
  province. Physicians have just begun to adopt
  these applications.
• Over the next 2 years, we will begin to integrate
  these applications into the electronic health
  record infrastructure.

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Building Today

• We are working with software providers to enable
  integration of electronic health record services
  into point of service products.
• We are building an integrated viewer, based on
  common web browser technology, to enable secure
  access to the electronic health record where this
  access is not supported by a point of service
  application.

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Where do we want to go in the future?

• We want to enable services directly to BC
  citizens.
• We want to directly engage patients in their
  care, especially those with chronic disease.
• We want information that can close the loop
  that enables outcome assessment, policy and
  strategy development in a variety of settings
  from local practice to health system wide.

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Where do we want to go in the future?

• These next steps will help us improve and advance
  services for British Columbians.
• We will take those steps more securely and more
  quickly by sharing and learning at venues like
  this.
• Thank you.