Cancelled PrescribeIT program restarted in Quebec

MONTREAL – Canada Health Infoway’s digital prescription program, called PrescribeIT, will be rolled out across Quebec after being shut down nationally earlier this year. The program spent nearly $300 million after years of trying to persuade doctors and pharmacists to use it, with only about 5 percent uptake.

The Globe and Mail reported that Quebec will operate its version of PrescribeIT, known locally by its French-language name Prescription Québec, with provincial funds. The main technology vendor will remain Telus Health, which collected about a third of the federal spending on the program and retains ownership of most of the intellectual property.

Canada Health Infoway launched PrescribeIT in 2017 as part of initiatives to replace fax machines with digital alternatives for sending prescriptions between doctors and pharmacists. Nearly $300 million in federal funds was invested in PrescribeIT over the years.

But Quebec health minister Sonia Bélanger convinced Infoway and the federal government to keep a pilot project in the province going past the May shutdown.

On July 17, Infoway and Santé Québec, the provincial authority for healthcare delivery, announced they reached a deal to continue the Prescription Québec pilot project and expected to expand it to the rest of the province’s 1,900 retail pharmacies.

“This agreement allows us to ensure the continuity of electronic prescriptions in places where they are already in place while continuing the deployment of Prescription Québec,” Geneviève Biron (pictured), president of Santé Québec, said in a statement.

Infoway interim chief executive officer Abhi Kalra said Prescription Québec uses the infrastructure established through PrescribeIT and builds on the investments made in that technology.

“It follows a successful Québec pilot, where partner feedback reinforced the value of secure electronic prescribing in practice and helped inform the decision to continue and expand the initiative through a Québec-led approach,” Mr. Kalra said in a statement.

While Infoway provided funding to initiate the pilot project, the Quebec Health Ministry will cover its operating costs.

Santé Québec wouldn’t disclose the sums involved in the Prescription Québec deal but said it was a four-year agreement. The health authority wouldn’t say how the platform would be financed after four years.

Prescription Québec is currently used by 14 pharmacies and 138 physicians working in eight clinics in the Estrie region, southeast of Montreal. The pilot project began in May 2024, and Santé Québec reported that, as of July 10, about 283,000 electronic prescriptions had been processed.

Associations representing Quebec pharmacists were happy with the announcement.

“Electronic prescriptions allow pharmacists to dedicate more time to patient care by reducing low-value administrative tasks, such as manual data entry,” AQPP, the Quebec association of pharmacy owners, said in a statement to The Globe and Mail.

“The advantage over fax or online fax, which are one-way communications, is that this is a two-way communication platform,” said Hugues Mousseau, executive director of ABCPQ, the Quebec association of pharmacy chains and banners. “One of the daily challenges for pharmacists when they want to verify information is contacting the doctor.”

One reason for PrescribeIT’s low uptake in other provinces was a per-prescription fee charged to pharmacists, which caused some to stop using the platform.

Quebec has said it won’t charge such a fee. “It wouldn’t have been sustainable,” Mr. Mousseau said, adding: “We think it’s not normal that pharmacists should absorb the costs.”

Only four pharmacy chains are part of the pilot project: Groupe Jean Coutu, Brunet, Uniprix and Proxim.

Mr. Mousseau observed that provincial officials have not detailed how the platform will be expanded to other chains and how those implementation costs would be covered.

Quebec’s decision to carry on with the PrescribeIT technology was announced as the government of premier Christine Fréchette, which is heading into elections this fall, already faced scrutiny for another health care digital initiative.

The province is currently rolling out another major project, DSN (Dossier santé numérique), an electronic health-records system that is being tested in two regions. It started last May after a six-month delay.

Infoway, a federally funded non-profit founded in 2001, was the subject of two hearings by the House of Commons health committee this spring, after The Globe first revealed problems with PrescribeIT in February.

The organization’s long-time chief executive officer was dismissed after being unable to answer questions from members of Parliament and after high salaries were revealed, such as the nearly $900,000 in remuneration paid to the CEO.

The federal government announced in June it would order an audit and strategic review of Canada Health Infoway.

Health Canada said it will launch a competitive procurement process in the next few weeks for an independent auditor to assess Infoway’s compliance with its government funding agreements.