Canada is suffering some of the same interoperability problems with its electronic health records as the United States, albeit for somewhat different reasons, according to a recent article in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association (CMAJ). The country lacks uniform national specification standards; moreover, each province has established its own health information software requirements, creating 11 different e-health jurisdictions and the adoption of EHRs that are incompatible with those used in other provinces.
In addition, EHR vendors must submit their products for testing to each province to meet each one's specifications, which causes unnecessary duplication. The article suggests that the provincial governments work to harmonize the systems and for the federal government to step in to help spur pan-Canada data sharing. The federal government has spent $2 billion on EHRs since 2001. Article