Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

The use of computers for storing patient health records can greatly improve the way health care services are delivered. They can help to reduce the cost of health care and improve its quality and safety. Quebec lags behind the rest of Canada in terms of the adoption of computer based health records. The objectives of my research are to understand and explain the actions of policy makers that affected the adoption of computer based health records over the last thirty years. I will look at health care policies and reports, and conduct interviews with policy makers. The outcome of my research will be a story, at the level of health policy, explaining Quebec's slow adoption of computer based health records. The knowledge gained from this research could help improve the adoption of computer based health records in Quebec and in other health systems, and may be useful for improving the success of future health policies.