Investigating Canadian Business & System Requirements at Allscripts Canada

Abstract

Understanding the foundational principles upon which our healthcare organization is built, is perhaps one of the most crucial things when considering the implementation of healthcare technology within different clinical settings. While performing the internship work-term at Allscripts Canada, the author utilized various knowledge bases and sources in order to fully understand the key principles of healthcare information technology implementation. Allscripts is a multinational enterprise that equips healthcare providers with electronic health record (EHR) technology, including but not limited to, solutions for patient engagement and care coordination, as well as analytics and finance management. During their term at Allscripts, the author was involved with several multidisciplinary projects. The author contributed to the following projects and initiatives: o 2bprecise Health: a precision medicine platform using medical ontologies to store and integrate genomic data into healthcare workflows. This project was focused primarily on developing a deep understanding of the product and aligning these features, technical specifications and goals with like-minded research institutions within Canada to build new alliances. The outcome was a future plan to partner with Canadian research institutions and explore grant funding within Canada. o Follow My Health (FMH): a personal health record (PHR) platform focusing on patient engagement and collaboration with healthcare providers. This project was heavily based on privacy, security and interoperability standards within Canada. The outcome was a complete business requirements plan, projecting towards Canada Health Infoway certification of the PHR platform. o Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) & National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS): data repositories capturing information pertaining to administrative, clinical and demographic information upon discharge and for community-based ambulatory care. This project was centered on gathering information pertaining to submission requirements for CIHI. Knowledge regarding data policies, ICD-10-CA standards and health ministry infrastructure was needed to compile relevant and usable information. o InterRAI-MDS 2.0: InterRAI clinical assessment protocols are individualized assessments and care-plans for residents within long-term care facilities, used to plan and measure care outcomes in standardized and evidence-based ways. This project analyzed the business requirements needed to initiate computerization of these assessment protocols. At the end of this internship experience, the author was successfully able to identify opportune research avenues for genomic technology, to gather and analyze business requirements pertaining to privacy and security standards within Canada, to succinctly explore CIHI standards for submission to DAD and NACRS and to analyze InterRAI-MDS 2.0 assessment protocols within clinical workflow scenarios. By drawing upon several knowledge sources such as business process modelling, international health classification and coding schemas/systems, health policy standards and legal frameworks, the author was able to gain invaluable experience within the domain of Health Informatics. This internship report will introduce the background information pertaining to the workplace and the project concepts, and will then describe in full the internship duties as well as the learning outcomes, project contributions, recommendations and proposed solutions. Finally, as concluding remarks, this report will outline the value of this opportunity to a student’s professional and educational paths.