TORONTO – ConnectingGTA announced that clinicians in the Greater Toronto Area will begin using a Limited Production Release (LPR) in July. According to the organization’s newsletter, the LPR marks the start of a regional electronic health record (EHR) for Central Ontario aimed at providing clinicians with a central source to access the information they need most urgently to enhance patient care.

Final testing and remediation activities were conducted and participating sites wrapped up preparation activities, such as finalizing the list of first users to access ConnectingGTA. These first users play a critical role as the feedback received during the LPR will impact the rollout to thousands of clinicians in the months and years ahead.

Full Go-live planning is also underway and the Program team will be presenting an updated plan to the ConnectingGTA Steering Committee at the end of July.

The ConnectingGTA team extended a heartfelt thank you to both Dr. Robert Bell (pictured), former President and CEO of University Health Network and Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.

The program is a partnership of the six Local Health Integration Networks – Central, Central East, Central West, Mississauga Halton, Toronto Central, North Simcoe Muskoka and is funded by eHealth Ontario and Canada Health Infoway.

ConnectingGTA will enhance the patient and clinician experience by providing point-of-care access to electronic patient information from across the care continuum. As the first of three regional integration hubs being created in Ontario, ConnectingGTA supports eHealth Ontario’s clinical priorities and accelerates the delivery of electronic health records by integrating electronic patient data from across six Local Health Integration Networks.

As part of ConnectingGTA Expansion, the next wave of sites has been engaged and will begin readiness assessment activities this summer. Wave 2 will see 75 organizations benefit with a broader reach into the community sectors to better support patient transitions.

The organizations will include acute care hospitals, a Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), community health centres, long-term care centres, mental health and addiction centres, primary care and rehab.

The information that can be accessed includes:

• Acute care data, such as discharge summaries and emergency department reports.
• Diagnostic imaging reports
• Lab data (from OLIS)
• Community data from CCACs, including referrals and placements
• A timeline and search function, to research patient histories
• Privacy and security controls.