EMR Specifications Overview
OntarioMD
works with physicians, EMR vendors, provincial partners (e.g. Ministry of
Health, Ontario Health, Government of New Brunswick, etc.) and other
stakeholders, to develop and manage EMR Specifications. The EMR Specifications
cover a range of clinical, business and technical requirements that
certified EMR offerings support. An EMR Specification may
contain one or more documents that contain all the necessary information an EMR
vendor needs to know to implement the specification.
EMR
Specifications define a minimum set of consistent, repeatable requirements and
obligations that drive EMR maturity in three categories:
1.
Foundation | e.g.: data, identity, privacy and security, hosting |
2.
Functional | e.g.: primary care baseline functionality, specialty specific
requirements |
3.
EHR Connectivity and Tooling | e.g.: provincial lab and drug repositories, client registries, authentication,
and authorization |
New
and/or updated EMR Specifications will be introduced over time which will
continue to advance the maturity of EMRs. EMR vendors with OMD certified
EMR offerings will be notified of any pending/new/updated EMR Specifications
and may be required to update their EMR offerings and be validated on the
incremental requirements to maintain their EMR Certification status.
The
following provides a brief overview and partial list of EMR Specifications in
each of their respective categories:
FOUNDATION
Foundation EMR
Specifications | Purpose and Benefits |
EMR Core Data Set Standard | Defines
~270 logical data elements that all certified EMRs support. Helps
ensure certified EMRs have the data required to participate in the provincial
EHR and enhance physicians’ use of EMRs. |
EMR Hosting (for Hosted Offerings Only) | Defines requirements for the hosted EMR (e.g.,
application, infrastructure, privacy & security, etc.) and business
services the EMR vendor must provide. Addresses physician barriers to
adoption of ‘cloud-based’ EMRs by ensuring certified hosted EMRs are secure,
highly available, and meet performance targets.
|
EMR Data Migration | Defines
how to physically migrate a portion of a patient’s record from one EMR
offering to another. Helps
physicians adhere to the jurisdictions regulatory college in record keeping
policies and decrease EMR data migration time and costs by specifying the
data that needs to be migrated and the responsibilities of the stakeholders involved.
|
FUNCTIONAL
Functional
Specifications | Purpose and Benefits |
Primary Care Baseline | Defines functional requirements for EMRs and services
provided by EMR vendors. Ensures EMRs have functions valued by physicians (e.g.,
drug interaction checking, electronic claims submission, etc.) and that EMR
vendors provide support services to help physicians use their EMR.
|
Chronic Disease Management | Defines functional and logical data requirements to
support the management of five chronic diseases: Diabetes; Asthma, Heart
Failure, COPD, and Hypertension. Ensures EMRs have a minimum set of functions and data to
help physicians track, analyze, and report on patient’s chronic diseases and
provide better care. |
EHR CONNECTIVITY AND TOOLS
EHR Connectivity &
Tools Specifications | Purpose and Benefits |
EMR – OLIS
| Defines functional requirements for the retrieval and
display of lab results.
Ensures EMRs display lab result
information in a manner that is easy for physicians to interpret and prevents
potential patient safety risks (e.g., ensuring abnormal test results are
flagged in the physician preview). |
EMR – HRM
| Defines functional requirements
and the physical data structure of health reports received from HRM. Ensures EMRs have the ability to
receive health reports valued by physicians.
|
More Information
For
more information on EMR Specifications, please visit the EMR Specifications Library
For
more information about the development life cycle, please visit the EMR
Specifications Development Life Cycle
For
more information on obtaining EMR Certification and Mandatory EMR
Specifications, please see the EMR Certification Overview