Sarah Kramer, President and CEO of eHealth Ontario Outlines Health Strategy

Sarah Kramer, President and CEO of eHealth Ontario spoke about the future of eHealth in Ontario at HealthAchieve 2008.

She focused on Ontario’s eHealth strategy, its system transformation goals and how the government’s goals will be implemented. In her words,the overall emphasis of eHealth in Ontario is to deliver clear, measurable, transparent results … that improve patient care quality and safety. Click here for the full text of her speech.

Background
eHealth Ontario is the marriage of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s e-Health Program and the province’s Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA) under one banner.

Three key e-health priorities have been identified for the next few years including a Diabetes Registry, an e-health portal to centralize health information on an easily accessible web site, and e-prescribing which will eliminate hand written prescriptions and reduce medication errors.

The ultimate goal of the e-health strategy is to create an electronic health record (EHR) for all Ontarians by 2015. An electronic health record will provide patients and providers with the ability to access, share and use health information. It will improve health care delivery, increase patient safety, reduce ER wait times and create a more effective health care system.

QUICK FACTS
* eHealth Ontario will work with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario to ensure the protection of personal health information;
* The Ontario government created SSHA in 2003 to improve patient care through a variety of initiatives, including network hosting and secure e-mail.