Pharmacy information systems in Canada.

The goal of Canada Health Infoway is to provide at least 50% of all Canadians with an electronic health record (EHR) by 2010. The goal of the Infoway Drug Information Systems Program is to develop an interoperable drug information system that will keep each patient's medication history: prescribed and dispensed drugs, allergies, ongoing drug treatment, etc. Drug and drug-interaction checks will be performed automatically and added to the patients' drug profiles. Physicians and pharmacists will be supplied with data to support appropriate and accurate prescribing and dispensing, thereby avoiding adverse drug interactions and drug-related deaths [1]. This paper describes Canadian developments in pharmacy eHealth. It presents the results of the Pharmacy Informatics Pharmacy Special Networks (PSN) survey about computer systems used in hospital pharmacies across Canada including information concerning Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) systems deployed; which may reduce the number of errors in orders.