MEDITECH’s Traverse Exchange Canada has experienced rapid growth since its March go-live. The interoperability network now connects seven healthcare instances across 19 hospitals using MEDITECH Expanse, along with 279 long-term care sites operating the PointClickCareⓇ EHR. The latest Expanse customers to join the network include CHAMP, Halton Healthcare, CARE4, SHINE, and Humber River Health.
This month, MEDITECH took another step toward its long-term vision of breaking down interoperability barriers across Canada by connecting its first pilot organization, CHAMP (Champlain Association of MEDITECH Partners), to Oracle’s e-Hub. Other sites are expected to complete this connection by the end of June, enabling the open exchange of patient records between two major health system HIS platforms. Patients’ data now follows them between care facilities, which saves time by eliminating the need to repeat their medical history and reducing the unnecessary duplication of tests.
“It is exciting to reach this pivotal point where our vision has become reality and interoperability is advancing,” says MEDITECH Director of Canadian Market and Product Strategy Bob Molloy. “Within the first month of the network going live, the initial wave of healthcare organizations was able to exchange key patient information more easily and with greater efficiency. We look forward to seeing the broader impact on care delivery and patient outcomes as Traverse Exchange Canada continues to expand.”
CHAMP, which comprises Arnprior Regional Health, Bruyère Continuing Care, Hôpital Glengarry Memorial Hospital, Hôpital Montfort, and Queensway Carleton Hospital, is also the first MEDITECH customer to connect Traverse Exchange Canada to the Ontario Provincial Client Registry (PCR). This is one of several provincial assets that MEDITECH is currently onboarding to the network. CHAMP leverages Traverse Exchange Canada to populate the Ontario Health-managed PCR (which is the authoritative source for patient demographics and identifiers supporting EHRs in Ontario), linking records from multiple points of care. Connecting through Traverse Exchange Canada eliminates the need to maintain a separate vendor service or interface engine to update the PCR with admission, discharge, and transfer data.
One of Traverse Exchange Canada's many benefits is that participating healthcare organizations can access the network and the connected provincial assets through a single connection. This eliminates the need for providers to sign on and search for information in each provincial asset, or launch various data viewing tools.
“As an organization, we are committed to advancing interoperability as a means of improving healthcare delivery and outcomes,” said Humber River Health CIO Peter Bak. “Traverse Exchange Canada has enabled more Ontario organizations than ever to conveniently exchange key patient health data. We are very excited about being part of this network and look forward to further analyzing how to use this solution to work collaboratively amongst a wide breadth of institutions to ensure the health and well-being of our patients. And as the network grows, so do our responsibilities.”
To protect patient privacy and security, Traverse Exchange Canada does not store patient data but instead uses a federated, query-based approach to locate and exchange patient data across the network, in collaboration with interoperability leader Health Gorilla.
“While we are already seeing great success connecting our many MEDITECH Expanse customers across Ontario, we are just scratching the surface of what the Traverse Exchange Canada network can achieve,” explains MEDITECH Senior Director of Interoperability Market and Product Strategy Mike Cordeiro. “As the number of participants connected to the network continues to expand, clinicians will see even greater impact through their ability to intelligently harness data from other sites, EHRs, and provincial assets — reducing the search burden by delivering insights directly within their workflows.”
Halton Healthcare includes Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, Milton District Hospital, and Georgetown Hospital. The CARE4 project comprises Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre, Georgian Bay General Hospital, Headwaters Healthcare, and Collingwood General and Marine Hospital.
SHINE (Shared Health Information Network Exchange) includes Oak Valley Health, Markham Stouffville Hospital, Uxbridge Hospital, and Stevenson Memorial Hospital. Humber River Health includes Runnymede Healthcare Centre.
Over the coming months, MEDITECH intends to connect to other EHR vendors and provincial assets, as well as MEDITECH customers running legacy platforms. MEDITECH is also in talks with several customers to extend the network beyond Ontario, beginning with British Columbia.
Please join MEDITECH’s session at e-Health 2024 on Monday, May 27 at 12:30 p.m. to learn about its latest AI advances in the Expanse platform.
The MEDITECH Traverse Exchange Canada platform is being funded by the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health through Project AMPLIFI. Project AMPLIFI intends to improve the continuity of care for Long-Term Care residents by streamlining transitions between care institutions, leading to safer care for Ontarians, and more efficient workflows for providers. As part of Project AMPLIFI, the Traverse Exchange Canada implementation will also support clinical information exchange between MEDITECH hospitals. To learn more about Project AMPLIFI, visit amplifiontario.ca
