EMR Specification and Validation Overview
OntarioMD EMR Certification provides assurance to physicians and the digital health community that EMR vendors and their certified EMR products have met and continue to meet the minimum set of requirements and obligations to drive EMR Maturity for the province.
EMRs must be certified in order to subscribe to Provincial EHR products and services, including OLIS, HRM and future EHR solutions and services as they become available.
Certified EMR offerings are recognized for maintaining obligations set forth in the EMR Vendor Certification Agreement and for aligning to the published Ontario EMR Specifications mandatory for a specific care domain (e.g.: Primary Care)
EMR Specifications
EMR Specifications define a minimum set of consistent, repeatable requirements and obligations that drive EMR maturity in three categories:
- Foundation: e.g.: data, identity, privacy and security, hosting
- EHR Connectivity and Tooling: e.g.: HRM, OLIS
- Functional: e.g.: primary care baseline functionality, specialty specific requirements
New and/or updated EMR Specifications will be introduced over time which will continue to advance the maturity of EMRs. EMR vendors with 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 in order 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 | 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 CPSO 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. |
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. |
Functional
Functional Specifications | Purpose and Benefits |
Primary Care EMR Baseline Requirements | 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. |
More Information
For more information on Ontario EMR
Specifications, please visit here
For more information on obtaining certification
and the validation process, please visit here
For information on reporting expectations
of EMR vendors with certified EMR offerings please visit here