News
British Columbia First Nation Health Agency Introduces Interoperable eHR Solution
May 23, 2006
British Columbia First Nation Health Agency Introduces Interoperable eHR Solution Tuesday, 23 May 2006 The twenty-eight member First Nations of Vancouver Island's Inter Tribal Health Authority (ITHA) have moved one step closer to obtaining electronic client records for their health services.
ITHA and health software company, Intrahealth Canada Limited (ICL) have signed an Alliance Agreement that will improve the delivery and coordination of clinical system services for its First Nations member bands through the implementation of a state-of-the-art health information system that was developed with the Maori people of New Zealand.
ITHA Executive Director, Terry Fox calls today's announcement "the beginning of a new era in First Nations health service management." Fox sees the ICL Alliance Agreement as significant opportunity for increasing First Nations access to health and wellness services and a concrete step towards full participation in a rapidly modernizing health system. Fraser Health and another BC Health Authority have also selected Intrahealth's product, Profile.
ITHA will incrementally grow its e-Health profile and common service support capacity, increasing as its proficiency with the Intrahealth system grows over time. "This will allow ITHA to keep the costs to our members down and to prioritize services according to the particular needs of local communities," said Fox. "It will allow us to take the initiative and be proactive in pursuing new capabilities." Gavin Eaton, the Health Information Officer at ITHA, explained that "Intrahealth will allow us to collate anonymous population health data - while respecting the principles of OCAP [Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession] - for our member communities and to monitor health status and needs in a way that we've not been able to before."
"The relationship between ITHA and ICL builds on a similar project undertaken with the New Zealand Ministry of Health, Maori Health Directorate in New Zealand", said Dr. Mark Matthews, the chief executive officer of ICL. Intrahealth productshave been installed in about 170 separate sites across New Zealand. "To know that our products will also assist First Nations in British Columbia deliver healthcare is very gratifying." The experience with the Maori in New Zealand has resulted in a system that can meet both the OCAP requirements of First Nations communities, as well as the interoperability requirements involved in linking up to larger provincial and national health information systems.
Dr Matthews said that Intrahealth's vision is to support improved health through a multi-disciplinary approach to delivering primary and community care services. "The system has been designed specifically to enable an agency like ITHA, to customize it to meet its specific requirements. ITHA can provide a single stop help desk, whether software related, or business related, in a way that has the potential to deliver superior customer service to their users."
The software operates within a single integrated platform and is designed to link all points-of-care participants electronically, for example hospitals, physicians, community health nurses, mental health workers, home care and others, so that potentially they can share patient records and information. Its Accession product even allows patients to access their records, make appointments and interface with healthcare professionals. Privacy and access issues have been diligently managed, and are seen as equally important as is the ease by which authorised users can access and add to the information.
As a first step, ITHA is undertaking an analysis of the processes and needs of the target user groups. This information will be used to configure the product in a joint effort with Intrahealth staff. The products will be rolled out as sites are trained and ready, with the first site likely to be the Tla'Amin Community Health Services near Powell River.
The official ITHA/Intrahealth launch is scheduled to take place on Vancouver Island on 29 May. For that occasion Intrahealth has two Maori guests from New Zealand. James Penfold and Maori elder ("kaumatua") Dr. Merimeri Penfold. James Penfold has technical knowledge of the Intrahealth architecture. Dr. Penfold is a professor at the University Kuia at the University of Auckland and a commissioner of on the New Zealand Human Rights Commission.
Contact:
Gavin Eaton,CIO, ITHA
Phone: (250) 753-3990
Fax: (250) 753-5224
Cell: (250) 713-5045
Email: gavin@itha.ws
http://www.vifn-ehealth.ca
534 Centre Street Nanaimo BC, V9R 4Z3
BACKGROUNDER
Inter Tribal Health Authority
Inter Tribal Health Authority (ITHA) is a non-profit society established by member Chiefs on Vancouver Island in response to service withdrawals by Health Canada. Established as a local area inter-agency organization, the ITHA provides a range of services: community nursing, management of health benefits, professional consultation, health informatics, community development, mental health, as well as manage federal transfer payments to communities. ITHA also hosts a very successful post-residential school healing program funded through the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and a primary care integration project which includes partners representing the majority of the First Nations on Vancouver Island. ITHA consists of 28 Member First Nations.
Intrahealth
Established in 1997 and now employing about 70 staff, Intrahealth has offices in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Europe. Intrahealth's principal focus is on primary and community health delivery offering both centrally hosted and stand alone solutions. Intrahealth Canada was established in 2005 and is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was recently selected as the preferred vendor by the Fraser Health Authority for their Primary Care Renewal project, and another Health Authority for their Primary Care Access Centers.
For more information:
Gavin Eaton, CIO Inter Tribal Health Authority, phone (250) 753-3990, email gavin@itha.ws , www.vifn-ehealth.ca
Mark Matthews, CEO Intrahealth Systems Ltd, phone 604 719 8601, email mark.matthews@intrahealth.com, www.intrahealth.com