IBM and the province of Alberta have signed a $10-million deal to digitize patient health records.
Digitizing the records, IBM says, offers more than speed for physicians, it will reduce medical errors and adverse drug reactions.
Over the course of the two-year contract with the Alberta government, IBM will help roll out the system and recruit, and train users such as physicians, pharmacists and other health-care providers to use the system in offices and pharmacies across the province. IBM said it would also operate a toll-free user helpline.
When fully deployed, the system promises to give health-care professionals secure access to patient information.
Alberta is trying to have every provincial resident on the electronic health-record system by 2008. More than 17,000 are already registered.
Included on each patient's record is information from a variety of sources, on patient demographics, prescriptions, allergies and lab and diagnostic imaging results.
Alberta's Pharmaceutical Information Network, developed by IBM, provides authorized health-care workers with secure access to a patient's prescription history.
