The federal government will spend $70 million to help Atlantic Canadians get access to their health records electronically and see doctors use an e-prescribing program that will send prescriptions to the pharmacy digitally. Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor made the announcement alongside Atlantic Canada's four premiers at an Atlantic Growth Strategy meeting. Petitpas Taylor says the move will allow patients to access digital health programs or their records, while physicians will be able to share patient information with specialists. Dubbed "Access Atlantic," the initiative will create a "digital health ecosystem across the Atlantic provinces" and implement an electronic prescription service. The New Brunswick Medical Society welcomes the move, stating that roughly half of doctors outside of the province's hospitals currently use an electronic records system. The society has a for-profit company called Velante to manage the creation of an electronic medical records system for physicians and healthcare providers, and recently signed a deal with the provincial government to discount the price for private doctors to purchase the system. However, the system doesn't allow New Brunswickers to see their own records digitally. Meanwhile, e-prescribing also doesn’t exist in New Brunswick.
Autres:
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