On December 9, 2009, IBM announced a project with Manitoba to enhance healthcare throughout the province with the creation of an electronic healthcare records (EHR) system. This technology can offer healthcare providers secure and quick access to pertinent patient information, which can improve the efficiency and quality of patient care while reducing healthcare costs. Currently information required to treat patients can be spread throughout many hospitals, clinics and other institutions across the province, which can mean a medical professional has only limited access to the vital medical information required to make critical decisions. As a result, choices can be based on partial, inaccurate, and sometimes out-of-date information, leading to a decreased level in the quality of care and unnecessary costs.
IBM will be leading a consortium to deliver to Manitoba a solution that enables cross-discipline integration of information to allow clinicians access to real-time, integrated clinical information from a variety of sources, removing barriers that currently exist. Manitoba EHR will be using the dbMotion Solution, whose e-health software for health information exchange has been operational in several countries and large healthcare facilities for almost ten years. Manitoba's electronic health records system will enable secure sharing of information about a patient's health to authorized healthcare professionals across the province. With this EHR system, continuity of care for patients will be maintained regardless of the number of provincial healthcare providers a patient visits.