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 thenational Electronic Health Records Solution (EHRS). Ultimately, the EHRS will connect 40,000 health caresupport systems Canada-wide to provide health professionals with centralized access to a patient's completemedical history to assist diagnosis and ensure safe and effective treatment. Using the Canadian standard, thegoal of the five year MARC-HI project is to create and demonstrate a model of the solution. In addition, theproject team, which includes college faculty, staff, students, graduates, as well as vendor partners, will buildand 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 projectwill gain valuable experience and training in specialized technology, which in turn, will have a significantimpact locally, regionally, and nationally. In addition, Mohawk College plans to create a new specialization inits Software Development diploma program, and will develop new training that will help to relieve the severeshortage of Health Informatics professionals in Canada. We will share research findings throughdemonstrations at local and national conferences, as well as publications in journals. Transfer of knowledgeand technology will also be accomplished with the release of publicly available software, potentially benefitinghundreds of computer specialists working to modernize Canada's health care system.