New working group of clinicians to promote e-Prescribing in Canada

A new working group of clinicians from various disciplines will help shape the future of e-Prescribing in Canada, announced Richard Alvarez, President and CEO, Canada Health Infoway (Infoway).

"Infoway greatly values the advice and knowledge health care providers have shared with us over the years," said Alvarez. "We are continuing this practice by forming an e-Prescribing Working Group, to bring leadership to our efforts to promote electronic prescribing.  The goal is to contribute to the efforts of provinces, territories and the private sector to integrate e-Prescribing functionality into the clinical systems used by health professionals."

The working group is chaired by Dr. Brendan Bunting, a physician and former President of the Alberta Medical Association.

"It's essential that considerations such as workflow and functionality—from the perspective of the health care providers who will be using e-Prescribing—be part of the planning from the onset," said Dr. Bunting. "The working group provides a forum in which that dialogue can occur, taking into account the perspectives of various clinical disciplines from different parts of Canada before the systems are designed and built."

The other members of the working group are:

• Dr. Eric Balser, a physician from Nova Scotia
• Dr. Keith Clark, a physician from Saskatchewan
• Dr. Stephen Holland, a physician from British Columbia
• Ms. Iris Krawchenko, a pharmacist from Ontario
• Ms. Claudia Mariano, a nurse practitioner from Ontario

e-Prescribing allows health providers to fill out and send prescriptions electronically so their patients' pharmacists of choice can access them instantly.  Accessing prescriptions electronically increases the productivity of health professionals and helps keep patients safer by reducing medication errors.

The establishment of the e-Prescribing Working Group is part of Infoway's strategy to increase the use of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems in Canada. The EMR is the record that a clinician maintains on his or her own patients, which details demographics, medical and drug history, and diagnostic information such as laboratory results and findings from diagnostic imaging.