Physician IT

Just three companies on Alberta’s latest list

EDMONTON – Only three companies are on Alberta’s newest Vendor Conformance and Usability Requirements (VCUR) Product List, which is run by the provincial Physician Office Systems Program (POSP). Physicians who select applications that have achieved conformance are eligible for POSP grant funding.

The three companies currently on the list are: Clinicare, Jonoke and Med-Access.

Their VCUR status indicates they have successfully completed conformance testing against:

• VCUR v2 (April 18, 2006)
• Transfer and Conversion of Patient Data (TCoPD) specifications (January 26, 2007)
• Pharmaceutical Information Network (PIN) interoperability specifications and limited production rollout (July 1, 2007)

All POSP Level 2 physicians must use a physician office system from this list to receive future funding.

The POSP web site tells physicians that: "If you do not see your current physician office system on the new VCUR Product List, you should check with your vendor regarding their plans for VCUR conformance. A number of vendors are actively working towards achieving VCUR conformance in the coming months."

Practices using products from vendors who are not reinstated to this list in the next few months will have 8 months from the date their product was de-listed in which to select and install a new physician office system. POSP Change Management Advisors are available for consultation on this issue.

“An additional four vendors did not make Alberta’s VCUR Product List in this latest round of conformance testing”, said Dennis Niebergal, president & CEO of Clinicare. “That makes a total of 10 who have dropped off in the past three months. We promised our existing Alberta Customer base that we would remain an approved vendor in order for them to take advantage of Alberta’s funding initiatives and we kept that promise.

Physicians using a product that conforms to the PIN interoperability or ‘system-to-system’ specifications will have an EMR that will be able to retrieve prescribing and dispensing, allergy, and patient demographic information from Alberta Netcare.

Any prescriptions or allergies that are recorded will automatically populate PIN allowing other practitioners to access the patient’s most current medication and allergy profile. This will augment the access to Lab Test Results, which is being provided to practitioners through their EMR applications.

For more information, see www.posp.ab.ca.