The Status of Health IT in British Columbia Elaine McKnight

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

The Status of Health IT in British Columbia  BC has been a strong supporter of HL7 since the early 1990’s.  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 BC’s Health IT programs.

History of HL7 in BC  BC began using HL7 with the design of PharmaNet in  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.

History of HL7 in BC  In the late 1990’s 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.

History of HL7 in BC  In the early 2000’s, 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.

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.

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.

The Status of Health IT in British Columbia  What is BC doing today?

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.

 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 Canada’s electronic health record, strengthening Canada’s health system The Status of Health IT in British Columbia

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.

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

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

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 individual’s electronic health record.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.