Evidence of meeting #22 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was privacy.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks very much to our presenters.
Mr. Alvarez, you spoke about a pilot project regarding collecting adverse events or keeping track of adverse events at a neonatal unit in British Columbia. You indicated you were having some success, or you thought you were having some success, with this project as it was being piloted. Can you talk a bit more about how it's being done? Whose responsibility is it to report and to whom are they reporting? One of the things we've heard from different areas is that there may need to be remuneration involved because of time and so on. Perhaps you could touch on that.
And how is the information that's being collected dispersed in a wider sense? How wide is the network that's being attached?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
Mr. Chair, I will ask Mr. Sheridan to address that since he's intimately involved in the project.
Chief Operating Officer, Canada Health Infoway
I'm not sure I'm intimately involved with the project, but certainly it is a pilot project. It was intended to show some innovation and adoption techniques.
The innovation was to change the way reporting was being done, in this case in a neonatal unit, with the assumption that once deployed and in place, this certainly could be used in other care settings, in other institutions, in other types of wards and care facilities.
The notion was that prior to the implementation of this particular system, the majority of the reporting was done on paper, and as Mr. Alvarez has always indicated, our health system on paper doesn't always look that good. So the system that was put in place was very standardized, computer-usable, a web-based application. That all sounds very complicated, but the reality is that it was click and point, enter the information, and then that went to another base.
Who was involved? Part of the process of getting electronic health records to work is adoption of these things by the actual users in the care community. The three hospitals that were involved in this particular project had a great approach. They created a team, and ostensibly, in the neonatal units, everybody became a part of the team--the doctors, the nurses, and the staff. In fact, when we had a presentation at our last board, they had created these little buttons that said “I am part of the team”. And of course everybody was trying to do that.
In terms of the actual adoption, the process was a team effort within the hospitals per se. The result, in terms of the reporting, was a web-based reporting tool that was much easier to use and much more accessible than the paper products that had been in place before.
The final piece was that this was aggregated into a centralized database, where the information could be used by “the team” in terms of giving better care and better follow-up.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Did this information go to Health Canada, or was it used internally by the team?
Chief Operating Officer, Canada Health Infoway
This was a clinical application within three hospitals in Vancouver.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
As far as adverse reporting goes, could it be applied to Health Canada?
Chief Operating Officer, Canada Health Infoway
It's early days in this particular piece, but certainly the evaluation of the benefits and the actual implementation, use, etc., haven't been fully completed. We would want to see the results of that analysis.
We also have a very similar project that's being put in place in Newfoundland.
I think it's early days in terms of the application of this to any particular pan-Canadian reporting system.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Were there privacy issues, since it was closed-circuit reporting?
Chief Operating Officer, Canada Health Infoway
A privacy impact assessment was done prior to the investments by Infoway. The results of that didn't indicate anything particularly negative or problematic with respect to privacy.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Lui Temelkovski
Thank you very much.
That concludes our session this morning. We will go in camera. We'll take a short break.
I'd like to thank the witnesses for--
Liberal
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Lui Temelkovski
No problem. Thank you.
Thank you very much to the witnesses.
We will have the motion passed around so everyone has a copy.
On a point of order, yes, sir.
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
On a point of order, it says in camera on the agenda.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Lui Temelkovski
Let's give it a second until they clear out. We'll deal with that.
Can we have the room cleared, please? Thank you.
Mr. Fletcher, you mentioned you want—
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
Yes. I had a point of order, that the schedule indicates we are discussing committee business and that it's in camera.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Lui Temelkovski
It is an option of the committee, and since the mover wants to have it in public, we'll have it in public.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
I want to speak on that, Mr. Chair, on a point of order.
Conservative
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Are we in session, Mr. Chair? There are still people in the room.
