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$150-Million Investment in E-Health to Improve Patient Care

May 1, 2006

VICTORIA – Patient care will be improved and modernized throughout British Columbia with the investment of $150 million towards eHealth initiatives, announced Health Minister George Abbott at the opening of a national eHealth conference in Victoria.

Canada Health Infoway, a national, independent organization that invests in electronic health record systems across Canada in partnership with provinces and territories, has conditionally agreed to allocate up to approximately $120 million to B.C. for eHealth initiatives between 2005/06 and 2008/09. The Ministry of Health is providing an additional $30 million over the same period.

“This investment will promote major transformation and modernization in the health-care system, providing better care for patients and maximizing the return on taxpayers’ investment,” said Abbott. “We are building on the success of our eHealth strategy so that health professionals are able to deliver faster, more effective treatments to patients through new information technology and telehealth. With the most relevant and accurate patient information at their fingertips, health professionals can make the best possible decisions about patient treatment and diagnosis.”

“The progress underway in British Columbia will contribute to Infoway’s goal of ensuring that 50 per cent of the Canadian population benefits from an electronic health record by the end of 2009,” said Infoway’s president and CEO Richard Alvarez. “B.C.’s eHealth strategy sets forth a comprehensive and ambitious roadmap designed to help transform the health-care system.

B.C.’s eHealth strategy comprises 22 projects grouped into nine areas – primary care, hospital care, home and community care, public health, laboratories, pharmacies, diagnostic imaging, Telehealth, and foundational projects – that will build an integrated, electronic record of a patient’s journey through the health system.

One example of an eHealth project that will be expanded across B.C. is Fraser Health and Interior Health’s lead to implement a provincial diagnostic imaging system. At Fraser Health, staff and physicians are able to electronically capture and share patient X-rays, MRIs and CT exams across 12 hospitals. Projects like this one result in better patient care, make the best use of radiologists’ time and provide long-term cost savings throughout the system. This project is one of the biggest of its kind in Canada.

eHealth initiatives underway also include:

  • Expanding access to existing programs such as PharmaNet to doctors’ offices, so that doctors can immediately access prescription information for patients;
  • Developing a provincewide electronic laboratory information system; and
  • Expanding Telehealth service capabilities to improve access to specialist care for people living in remote and rural communities.

A primary component of the Province’s eHealth strategy is safeguarding patient information. The provincial government is committed to ensuring that patient privacy and confidentiality are protected at the highest levels possible. Legislation is in place to protect personal privacy and is being strengthened further with recent amendments that were developed in consultation with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

Abbott also released British Columbia’s eHealth Strategic Framework, which outlines how eHealth initiatives will improve patient care, and help health professionals to deliver better, faster and safer care, as well as the benefits to the health system.
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Authorized By Jim Pipe, Financial Agent BC Liberal Party.
Tel: 604.606.6000, 1.800.567.2257