Issue

The need for an efficient, confidential system for exchanging e-referral messages between different electronic medical record (EMR) vendors.
 

Goal

The goal was to establish a mechanism to exchange e-Referral messages between different EMR products used in the Nanaimo community. It was a limited scale pilot that aimed for technical proof of concept.
 

Focus

• The pilot was limited to transactions between the two primary EMR systems in use in Nanaimo: Intrahealth and Optimed.
• The method of data transfer was through a reliable independent transport layer, Excelleris, rather than direct point-to-point transfer.
• The transactions were referrals and consultation letters with a patient summary in Adobe PDF format for the pilot.
• The pilot supported adoption by up to approximately 50 physicians in the Nanaimo area.
• The project management firm for the pilot was Gordon Point Informatics Ltd. The official project period was September 1, 2012 - March 31, 2013, and beta testing was scheduled to conclude by the second week of April 2013. 
• Funding of $80 000 was provided for the project by the Physician Information Technology Office. 
• The pilot was a partnership between the Nanaimo Community of Practice and the Division.