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TORONTO — Canada is making strides in the deployment of its national e-prescribing service, PrescribeIT.
Canada Health Infoway, a federally funded, nonprofit digital health organization overseeing the rollout, said more community pharmacies have signed onto the service since its official launch at the end of August. Agreements have been reached with six provinces — Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland–Labrador — to implement the service.
PrescribeIT is now working with 20 community pharmacy companies — with local, regional and national reach — that represent more than 3,300 pharmacies in the six provinces. More than 900 physicians, on behalf of their 718,000 patients, also have expressed interest in the service.
“The continued rollout and strong response from prescribers and pharmacists and the obvious patient safety benefits of the service, reinforce the need and desire for a national e-prescribing service. And that’s what we’re doing with PrescribeIT,” said Canada Health Infoway president and chief executive officer Michael Green said in a statement.
Via PrescribeIT, prescribers can securely transmit a prescription from an electronic medical record (EMR) to the pharmacy management system at a patient’s pharmacy of choice.
In August, PrescribeIT went live in Huntsville, Ontario, at Remedy’sRx Muskoka Medical Centre Pharmacy and two doctors with the Algonquin Family Health Team. Not long after, two pharmacy locations and two doctors in Kingston, Ontario — Frontenac Medical Clinic & Associates and Frontenac Medical Pharmacy/Lovell Drugs — began employing the service. Canada Health Infoway said another site will be adopting the service soon in the Niagara region of Ontario.
“With the most recent launches, and more happening soon, I am excited to see how PrescribeIT is changing the face of health care in Canada,” Green added.
