One of our first innovation programs is 'EHR from the Cloud'.

As the name suggests this is an initiative to define, promote and deliver Cloud-based solutions for EHR systems (Electronic Health Records), and it's the perfect example of how meeting Government and citizen needs is a simple but very powerful way to also stimulate innovation.

Canada Health Infoway is the national standards organization for growing adoption of EHR, and as their latest update shows, Canada's innovation gap manifests itself in these critical areas. Slide 4 of this presentation shows that Canada is woefully behind other nations like the UK, Australia and New Zealand in their adoption. As per a previous blog, it's 55 to zero hospitals against the USA too.

It also explains that EHR is a key way to improve key Healthcare performance factors, like quality, and so it demonstrates how the innovation gap isn't simply a conceptual discussion, it has real impact for citizens, in terms of poorer healthcare.

Innovation Agenda
Our 'EHR from the Cloud' innovation program will address this through bringing together an expert innovation team who will implement the following projects, which will be aligned with the relevant Health Infoway initiatives:

• Cloud standards: Define how key standards programs like NIST, FIPS, ISO JTC1/SC38, and WS-* standards can be leveraged for eHealth requirements, like patient data privacy.
• Vendor solutions program: A complete suite of Cloud EHR applications, including 'TrackHealth', a SaaS solution for 'RM&R' workflows.
• Community Cloud Architecture: Shared common infrastructure, like single sign-on integrations between eHealth Ontario ONE-ID and apps like Sharepoint.
• eHealth Innovation best practices: Review and sharing of best practices from all over the world, such as the Whitehouse 'Innovation and Technology for Healthcare' program.
• Cross-agency collaboration: Develop partnerships with other Government programs to help accelerate uptake, such as 'BRE' - Business Retention and Expansion.
• Angel investors: Also link up with private investors to grow the industry through funding new startups in this sector.

Join in. This is the agenda for our first networking meeting, and I have set up a specific Cloud Ventures sub-group to bring together experts and vendors.

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