Evidence of meeting #33 for Health in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Dr. Vaughan, did Ms. Voisin vote to approve Michael Green's maximum performance bonus last year, yes or no?
Board Chair, Canada Health Infoway
I don't recall the details of that particular vote. We can look at how that is reflected in the minutes. I'm happy to share that.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Was the vote for him to get his maximum performance bonus unanimous, or was there a discrepancy on the board?
Board Chair, Canada Health Infoway
Stepping back, Health Canada often doesn't vote for or against. They abstain on funding types of questions. I don't believe there was anyone who was opposed to it, but we could check with the minutes and provide that for you.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Yes, please table the votes on performance awards.
Dr. Vaughan, has the current federal health minister ever personally raised concerns with you or the board about the $300 million spent on PrescribeIT?
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
She's never raised it with you. The current minister has never had reservations about PrescribeIT.
Board Chair, Canada Health Infoway
PrescribeIT is actually a successful program, as we've heard, that was delivered across Canada. It actually works.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
I think that's rather debatable.
Dr. Vaughan, has the current federal health minister ever personally raised concerns with you—and I think you've answered this already—or the board about how Canada Health Infoway is spending taxpayer money, yes or no?
Board Chair, Canada Health Infoway
The answer is no. We submit all of our documents quarterly to Health Canada, and the contribution agreement is audited and submitted annually.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Is Canada Health Infoway a not-for-profit organization, yes or no?
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
Dr. Vaughan, do you know what the Prime Minister of Canada makes as a salary?
Board Chair, Canada Health Infoway
No, I currently don't have that before me.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Riding Mountain, MB
It's just over $435,000.
Michael Green is the CEO of Canada Health Infoway. Total compensation was nearly $900,000.
Liberal
Board Chair, Canada Health Infoway
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The short answer is that we look at the environment in which we work with the comparator groups around health IT, pharmaceuticals and hospital administration in Ontario, particularly downtown Toronto. Those are the comparator groups that are looked at.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you.
That was six minutes and 24 seconds.
We will now go to MP Sidhu. Please go ahead for six minutes.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My first questions are for Dr. Vaughan.
Dr. Vaughan, I see that there's a significant difference between pharmacies and prescribers. From your perspective, what was the experience of implementing and using PrescribeIT, particularly among prescribers? Adoption rates differ widely, with about 95% pharmacies and EMR vendors compared to 27% of prescribers, with less than 5% of prescriptions sent through PrescribeIT. What explains this gap?
Board Chair, Canada Health Infoway
Thank you very much for the question.
It is actually very consistent with international comparators at this stage. In the U.S., for example, at this stage they had 3% adoption. What did they do? They brought in incentives and mandates through legislation. Every OECD country that has electronic prescribing as a national service has either mandated or used incentives, and that falls within the realm of the provinces and territories. Infoway is about enablement, but we do not have the power or the policy levers that the provinces and territories do.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Can you clarify and explain what each of your respective roles and responsibilities in developing, implementing and maintaining PrescribeIT were, along with the roles and responsibilities of vendors and provinces and territories?
Board Chair, Canada Health Infoway
I will ask my colleague, who's very much involved with PrescribeIT technically, to perhaps answer that question.
Tania Ensor Strategic Advisor, Canada Health Infoway
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Infoway's responsibilities were setting the policy and direction of the organization itself, setting the specifications and the standards, and then working with vendors to onboard onto the managed service provider system through Telus. We had a role as well, from Infoway's perspective, to oversee the work Telus did and hold them accountable to the contract we had negotiated with them.
We also had a significant role working with provinces and territories to enable the system with their technical systems but also to provide them with information and encouragement to grow adoption, hold pilots and build the use of the system significantly.
Telus's responsibility was for the managed service provision of the platform, but they also had a role as a vendor. They're one of the largest EMR and pharmacy system vendors in Canada. They had a role to help grow adoption with their physicians, their pharmacies and their customer base, because they were the ones who were truly interacting with that group.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
If any challenge arose with the program, what was the role in addressing them and what types of problems fell within your responsibility?