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.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
Yes, we spent some time looking at the different options available going forward.
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
We'll try to get the facts straight.
Can you provide to the committee in writing the analyses that led to the board of directors' conclusion reached in November or December 2025, the amounts committed or expenses incurred after November 2025, and the documents related to the transfer scenario?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
If the committee asks for the information....
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
Thank you.
If you had to do it again today, what would you do differently to make sure it works, in concrete terms?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
As I mentioned, during the time of running the program, we did extensive analyses together with the board of directors and our provincial partners and industry. We determined the different paths, and the board settled on the open standards approach as the method of choice to promote e-prescribing going forward in Canada.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you.
You have 30 seconds, if you wish, Mr. Blanchette-Joncas, but you wouldn't get an answer in that time.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
On a scale of one to 10, how would you rate Canada Health Infoway's performance?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
What I may give is a subjective answer, but I think it would be better seen by how our board perceives what we're doing.
Bloc
Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Bloc Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC
I'm asking you for a number, on a scale of one to 10.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Mr. Green, I'm sorry.
The question was very simple. We tend to eat up a lot of time with this repetition of “the board of directors”, etc. We know your board makes decisions. Can you say on a scale of one to 10, please, as you were asked?
Thank you.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
I think we've done everything we can, and I would say....
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
I would say an eight.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much.
We'll go to Mr. Eyolfson for the Liberals, please, for five minutes.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Thank you, Chair.
I guess I'm trying to understand a number of issues on which, up to now, the answers seem elusive.
We hear that 95% of vendors and pharmacists had uptake, but a very small percentage of physicians were using this. Where's the disconnect on this? Why weren't physicians using this? Had problems been identified?
Were you getting feedback as to why there were so many health care providers not using this? Why might that have been, and what problems could have led to that?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
To answer your question, when you look at any digital solution, or any solution, it has to be, first of all, staged, set up, as I mentioned—
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Yes. I'm sorry. I don't mean to cut you off, but that's similar to many of the answers we've heard before. It doesn't answer the question.
Were there technical problems identified by health care providers who were trying to use a system that accounted for such low numbers of prescriptions or were there low numbers of providers subscribing to this? Can you point to any discrete issues that led to low uptake among prescribers?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
I think change management is a big issue with individual primary care providers utilizing new technology and new systems, and the decision to move to the open standards approach is one that, if seen, would encourage broader adoption of the program—
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
A number of steps have to be taken to adopt the program. A provider would have to sign up and log in to a secure system. We had to know that individual providers were indeed who they said they were, that they had the ability to prescribe and so on. In some of the provinces we launched in, Alberta and Ontario were early adopters, and we had about 20% of prescriptions going through the system in those provinces.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
If you have such a low percentage of prescriptions going through your system, could you say this was a successful program if such a low percentage of providers subscribed to it?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
I think it was a successful program in terms of the uptake from the pharmacies and the IT systems—
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Winnipeg West, MB
Sir, I'm sorry to cut you off, but we've heard that answer many times today.
If 95% of the pharmacists take it up, that does not in any way, shape or form make it change that one of the higher provinces for uptake was at 20%. How can you have a successful program that only between 5% and 20% of providers, depending on the province in question, are using?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
The decision to move to an open standards approach—