PRIVATE SECTOR / PUBLIC SECTOR

With the advent of digital health information technology, there has been a steady growth in health information technology vendors. ​Some technology is procured and operated by health care custodians such as AHS (Epic), AH (Healthnet), and private health services (EMRs) to meet their information needs. Other technology platforms are owned and operated by the vendor themselves (Telus MyCare, Maple), who contract health providers to deliver health services on their platform. 

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However, there is an absence of public policy in Alberta that requires that these technologies are interoperable, promote continuity of care, or fosters quality of care. As a consequence, fragmentation of health information results in the formation of parallel, technology-based and custodian-based health services, compromising continuity and quality of care. 

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​This project aims to address the interface between public and private sector health technologies and services as they apply to the provision of virtual care, with a mandate to provide concrete suggestions for assuring the provision of quality care irrespective of the business model of health information technology or health service provision.