Digital Health Drug Repository (DHDR) Overview

Access to Drug Information through Your EMR!

Clinicians juggle many patient encounters and practice priorities every day in a limited amount of time. Simplifying this work and easing the burden on you is why OntarioMD (OMD) is focused on connecting your EMR to as many clinically valuable digital tools as possible—including Ontario Health's Digital Health Drug Repository (DHDR).

With seamless access from your EMR, the DHDR gives you as much information on drugs dispensed to your patients as is available. Knowing as much as possible about the drugs patients are taking helps you reduce the risk of adverse drug events such as medication errors, drug reactions, allergic reactions, and overdoses, and increases the likelihood of optimal patient outcomes.

The provincial DHDR is now available to all users of OMD-certified EMRs in good standing. OMD can begin the connection process with you today!

Benefits to Your Patients and Your Practice

• Access patients' medications covered under the ODB program, drugs that are considered narcotics or controlled substances, as well as COVID-19 vaccination information, directly from your EMR.
  
• If you use a provincial clinical viewer to access the DHDR, you will now have direct access from your EMR—you no longer need to log in to a separate portal to view the information, saving you time and effort!
  
• Access to the DHDR from your EMR further enables:
  

1. Improved patient safety, outcomes and continuity of care
2. Decreased risk of medication errors and patient mortality
3. A record of dispensed prescriptions and pharmacy services for more informed clinical decisions
4. More time to diagnose, treat and communicate with patients
5. More efficient medication reconciliation in case of medication recalls 
6. Improved collaboration with other health care providers who also access the DHDR
   
   

DHDR Availability and User Requirements

Check out the OMD-certified EMRs that offer access to the DHDR. Contact support@ontariomd.com today to get started or click the button above.

If you use another certified EMR, access to the DHDR is imminent. Beat the rush and get priority access!

Get ahead of the curve: 3 basics to get started

Your EMR vendor is making it a priority to give you access to the DHDR. Secure access to medication information through your EMR requires three prerequisites, and you may already have the first two:

1. A ONE^® ID from Ontario Health
2. A PKI certificate, a digital certificate that proves your identity
3. A client information form for Ontario Health
   

The sooner you start the process to access medication information, the sooner you can enhance patient safety! Contact us at support@ontariomd.com today.

EMR Integration with the DHDR is mandatory

OMD is leading EMR integration with the DHDR in partnership with Ontario Health, the Ministry of Health, and vendors with OMD-certified EMRs.

In November 2021, EMR integration with the DHDR became mandatory. All vendors with OMD-certified EMRs must complete the work by November 2022 to maintain their OMD EMR certification.

Please contact your OMD Advisor or support@ontariomd.com to express your interest in connecting DHDR to your EMR. Only OMD-certified EMRs can connect to drug information.

Learn More

• DHDR Brochure
  
• FAQ - Access to Drug Information through Your EMR
  

Demo Videos

See how access to the DHDR looks in your EMR with these demo videos:

Accuro EMR — DHDR Demo Video

YMS EMR — DHDR Demo Video

OMD DHDR Webinars

View the OMD EMR DHDR Integration webinar recordings below:

YMS EMR — DHDR Webinar

Government Resources

• Download: Information Available to Health Care Providers through the Digital Health Drug Repository from the Government of Ontario's website for more details. NOTE: This file download requires Adobe Reader 10 or later client. Once the download link is clicked, check the 'Downloads' folder of your computer to locate the file.
• Also refer to Ontario Health's Digital Health Drug Repository (DHDR): Guide for Clinical Use (downloadable PDF) for key information about the DHDR, including:
• How much historical information is available
• Clinical limitations of DHDR information
• Availability of COVID-19 vaccination information from COVaxON

For more information on which other digital health tools you can access with your EMR, please contact us at support@ontariomd.com. 

For EMR Vendors

OMD has updated the set of mandatory EMR specifications to include the DHDR in the current EMR Certification Release (downloadable file): PCON-2021-01 (updated from version PC-2018-01).

Visit EMR Certification Overview for more information regarding the current version and other EMR Certification Releases.