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
Thank you for your question.
I think that in our opening statement and the documents we've provided, we've described the investment that's been made in the program.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
Overall, $250 million was the amount.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Telus just told the committee that they received $98 million for PrescribeIT. What was the other $150 million spent on?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
We designed and built the system, as I mentioned in my opening statement, with an approach of collaboration that involved a number of different partners. In addition to the hub provider, Telus, there were other IT companies—
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
—and EMR companies.
Conservative
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
PrescribeIT was run as an eight-year program and involved investments across a wide variety of our partners, including the provincial jurisdictions and territorial jurisdictions—
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
What other IT companies were involved in designing and improving it?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
In Canada, there are a number of organizations that operate electronic medical records—
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
—for example. We also integrated—
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Could you please table what companies participated in that $150 million?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
I can certainly provide that information if the committee requests it.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
I don't have the information on hand.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
It would be perfect if you would table that.
Mr. Green, over $250 million in taxpayer money has been spent on PrescribeIT since 2016. As of today, what percentage of Canadian prescriptions are transmitted through PrescribeIT?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
As of today, we have connected the system to 95% of pharmacies and 95% of vendors. We recognize that the system can transition into a new approach based on other standards.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
That answered the question: 95%. Thank you. That's good.
Mr. Green, how many applicants responded to the May 2024 request for expressions of interest, entitled “The Future of PrescribeIT”, to take over the program?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
I can't remember the exact number of applicants that replied to it, but there were certainly more than 10, I would say.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Okay. Could you provide a list of respondents to the committee, please?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
If the committee requests the information, we can do so. Obviously, some of it is commercially confidential.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Yes, I just did. That would be great.
Mr. Green, Canada Health Infoway spent nearly two years searching for a private company to take over PrescribeIT. The search was in its final stages when the board voted to abandon it and terminate PrescribeIT.
Why was the search terminated all of a sudden? If you had 98% of the pharmacies.... We just learned that everybody was covered, so why did you terminate it?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Health Infoway
As I mentioned, when you look at IT initiatives in health care, it's quite common for there to be changes in technology over time. We've operated PrescribeIT for eight years now. In consultation with our partners and board of directors, we decided that a more effective approach, going forward, would be to look at an open standards approach, which would suit the diversity of the different health systems across the country.