Evidence of meeting #29 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infoway.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
Infoway, as we noted—
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
—holds the contract with Telus.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
Infoway holds the contract with Telus. Health Canada does not have anything to do with the funds collected through those fees.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all of you for coming.
I guess I'll go back to one of the questions I was asking the last witness. Do we know why the uptake on this was so low among health care providers? We were told many times that 95% of pharmacies but only between 5% and 20% of prescribers agreed to take this up. Do we know why?
Elizabeth Toller Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
That's a good question to ask. We heard that the solution created was technically strong, and a lot of people enrolled to use it, but the use was low. I think it boils down to some small irritants that made it difficult for the physicians to use. Many of them are not doing e-prescription today. They're using an e-fax or a secure email in which a PDF is sent, and there isn't actually sharing of data, but it's easy. It's a one-click thing. We heard some reports that they had to face multiple logins or that it just wasn't as easy as doing the e-fax. I think there was some integration and some basic functionality that could have worked better with the workflows of providers to make it a stronger value proposition for use.
The other challenge is that provinces and territories are the ones who have the policy levers to incent adoption. They potentially could have been involved earlier with Canada Health Infoway in driving adoption from the get-go.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
All right. Thank you.
I know it's difficult to say, because you didn't develop the product, but would you say that these irritants, or these factors that made it more difficult to use, were a bug in the product, for lack of a better term?
Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
I think the product was technically sound, but it could have been improved a bit more. For that to happen, it probably would have required additional funding.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
All right. Yes. In the answers from our previous witness, it seemed—without actually stating this—there were just no problems with it. It worked perfectly. It was physicians and nurse practitioners who weren't adopting it. We could never get a clear answer on why that was. It sounds as though some technical issues made it more difficult to use than a fax.
Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
Yes.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Okay. That's good to know.
I understand that you might not have the IT background, but would it not be a fault of the product that it's just not as easy to use as a fax machine when it's marketed as...?
Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
I think we have to remember how complex our federated health care system is and how much work it took to integrate the solution amongst all the different vendors and different pharmacy solutions. From that point of view, it did deliver well, but it wasn't able to integrate.
I also think it was introduced at a time when some of the technology wasn't as evolved. I think it could have been improved slightly—there was not a significant gap, if that's fair to say.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Okay. Thank you.
You mentioned that we have this federated system. We've had a lot of discussions about differences with the provinces. Would more robust co-operation of the provincial health authorities help improve the uptake in it?
Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
I think all the provinces and territories broadly supported the concept of e-prescribing. There was a very healthy level of collaboration. However, as I mentioned, there could have been more involvement earlier on to drive adoption through incentives to ensure that the physicians were using it. There's a lot of focus on the technical side with vendors and prescribers.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Thank you.
In regard to the actual product itself, as we heard many times, the board of Infoway said they're going to a standards-based approach. Is this product still available should a province, any province, decide to use it? If all the provinces are deciding to develop these standards, and their standards are compatible with what was being done, can they use this piece of technology and software that was developed?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
Yes, they can certainly have their own contract with Telus. As Infoway noted—
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Health Policy Branch, Department of Health
—they're going to provide the IP.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
The product hasn't been tossed on the trash heap, and the money hasn't been—for lack of a better word—flushed.
Okay. Thank you. Therefore, there is an opportunity for it to be used on an ongoing basis with the provinces.
Director General, Health Care Strategies Directorate, Department of Health
We hope more solutions will emerge.
