Grant: College and Community Innovation Program

The Mohawk Applied Research Centre in Health Informatics (MARC-HI) at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario, in collaboration with various industry partners, is proposing to create a working example of the national Electronic Health Records Solution (EHRS). Ultimately, the EHRS will connect 40,000 health care support systems Canada-wide to provide health professionals with centralized access to a patient's complete medical history to assist diagnosis and ensure safe and effective treatment. Using the Canadian standard, the goal of the five year MARC-HI project is to create and demonstrate a model of the solution. In addition, the project team, which includes college faculty, staff, students, graduates, as well as vendor partners, will build and demonstrate options that can be used to simplify and standardize connections to the system by doctors' offices, hospital, laboratories, pharmacies, and other points of health care services. Participants in this project will gain valuable experience and training in specialized technology, which in turn, will have a significant impact locally, regionally, and nationally. In addition, Mohawk College plans to create a new specialization in its Software Development diploma program, and will develop new training that will help to relieve the severe shortage of Health Informatics professionals in Canada. We will share research findings through demonstrations at local and national conferences, as well as publications in journals. Transfer of knowledge and technology will also be accomplished with the release of publicly available software, potentially benefiting hundreds of computer specialists working to modernize Canada's health care system.