Canada Infoway Defines its Health IT Standards.

Canada Health Infoway released the following a few days ago.

http://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/News-Events/InTheNews_long.aspx?UID=342

Infoway Standards Collaborative releases catalogue of health informatics standards

September 22, 2008, Toronto, ON - Health informatics professionals can now access the latest standards, available in the Standards Collaborative Guide & Standards Catalogue. The free catalogue is Canada's first reference tool on electronic health record (EHR) standards.

"Pan-Canadian health information standards are a critical building block to establishing an interoperable electronic health record system to benefit all Canadians," said Dennis Giokas, Chief Technology Officer, Canada Health Infoway (Infoway). "The Standards Collaborative Guide & Standards Catalogue is an information reference tool for understanding the fundamentals of standards and their function in day-to-day health care interactions."

The Standards Collaborative Guide & Standards Catalogue is a key reference source that provides a listing of the pan-Canadian health information standards, their status and business functions. The guide also highlights the benefits for the EHR, including integrating health informatics systems in large health service delivery settings and in health regions. It also defines the standards approval process and outlines Infoway Standards Collaborative services.

Access a copy of Infoway's Standards Collaborative Guide & Standards Catalogue by visiting the Resource Centre. For more information, or for a hard copy of the publication, contact the Infoway Standards Collaborative InfoDesk toll-free at 1-877-595-3417 or email standards@infoway-inforoute.ca.

Launched in 2006, the Infoway Standards Collaborative is a Canada-wide coordination function created to support and sustain health information standards in Canada. As one of Infoway's target investment areas, more than 20 standards projects have been completed or are underway, with a total investment in standards development to date of $33 million. In addition, Infoway has dedicated another $20 million to date for the support and maintenance of the standards for Canada. The investment includes support for standards life cycle-based services to vendors, service delivery organizations and jurisdictions, and for liaising with International Standards Development Organizations.

Canada Health Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government. Infoway jointly invests with every province and territory to accelerate the development and adoption of electronic health record projects in Canada. Fully respecting patient confidentiality, these secure systems will provide clinicians and patients with the information they need to better support safe care decisions and manage their own health. Accessing this vital information quickly will help foster a more modern and sustainable health care system for all Canadians.

--- End Release.

This is a very useful release as it shows where Canada is up to in its Health IT Standards efforts and provides some useful ideas about how Australia could consider moving forward. At the centre of that Canada is doing is the Infoway Standards Collaborative.

More detail on this is provided here:

http://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/WhatWeDo/SCOverview.aspx

The key parts are as follows:

“Launched in 2006, the Standards Collaborative is a new Canada-wide coordination function created to support and sustain health information standards in Canada. Hosted at Infoway, the Standards Collaborative will be responsible for the implementation support, education, conformance, and maintenance for electronic health records (EHR) standards currently being developed by Infoway. The Standards Collaborative will also encompass several standards initiatives formerly managed by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.(CIHI), including the Partnership for Health Information Standards, Canada's participation in DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) and, in conjunction with the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the secretariat to the Canadian Advisory Committee to ISO/TC 215.

Standards collaboration is an integral element of and a key requirement for the establishment of a pan-Canadian interoperable EHR. In addition to the new responsibilities outlined above, Infoway will continue to support the Standards Collaborative Process to establish pan-Canadian EHR health information standards.

Our Standards Collaborative forums support communication and exchange among various communities interested in health care and health care informatics deliberation and consensus building on standards.”

What I find utterly refreshing is the absence of the need for anything vaguely like our authoritarian NEHTA and a commitment to developing the collaboration of all relevant stakeholders in getting the pan-Canadian standards in place.

On the basis of the catalogue released (a more than worthwhile download) Canada is moving forward very well, knows what she is doing and has addressed the issues of standards sustainability with proper stakeholder involvement. Also by going down this sort of path Canada is assured of ongoing expert involvement in the future.

A model to be closely studied I believe.

David.