Montreal gets e-health records

A long-awaited electronic health record database is to be introduced in the Montreal region, beginning March 30.

The new tool will allow healthcare providers including doctors, pharmacists and lab technicians to access and share a patient's vital health information, notably prescriptions and lab results.

Every Montreal residentregistered with Quebec's health insurance plan will automatically be included in the database, unless an individual opts out by submitting an explicit refusal to participate.

"This will give me more rapid access to my patients' data," said Montreal family physician Dr. Mark Roper, welcoming the announcement. "I'll be able to make decisions more quickly."

Quebec's health ministry will launch an advertising campaign this month to explain the change to Montrealers. By the end of March, the e-health records will be created, and some doctors and pharmacies should begin to use the database by late April.

Hospitals, clinics and pharmacies on the island of Montreal will be linked to the large database over the next two years, according to Quebec health minister Yves Bolduc.

Quebec criticized for e-health delays

The switch to digital health records has been a long time in the making. In 2011, Quebec's auditor-general criticized Bolduc for the delays, saying the project to implement electronic health records was behind schedule and over budget.

Health researchers at McGill University said in February 2011 that e-health must be made a government priority, calling an electronic health record system "the backbone of health care reform in Canada" and suggesting the system would bolster chronic disease management and improve access to care.

"For all levels of care, but particularly primary care, which is where most care is provided in western countries, Canada and US have the lowest adoption of e-health records," said Dr. Robyn Tamblyn, a McGill epidemiologist andlead author ofa Feb. 2011 study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"Everywhere in the world that they decided to do the informatisation of the health system, it takes a long time," said Bolduc, defending the delays in Quebec. "If you go to the US, if you go to Europe, if you go to Ontario and BC...it took between five and ten years."