Ontario EMR Specifications FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Ontario EMR Specifications?
What has changed since EMR Specification 4.1?
Why was the Ontario EMR Specification restructured?
When is the set of Ontario EMR Specifications effective?
Do the Ontario EMR Specifications trigger validation?
How does an EMR vendor's EMR offering become certified against the Ontario EMR Specifications?

Answers

1. What are Ontario EMR Specifications?

Ontario's EMR Specifications are the business and technical requirements that EMR offerings must meet in order to be certified by OntarioMD. Certified EMRs enabled physicians to participate in Ontario's EMR funding programs and position physicians to access the patient information contained in regional and provincial digital health assets as they become available.

By certifying an EMR offering, OntarioMD does not warranty the functionality of the EMR or the ability of the EMR vendor to support the EMR product and services. Only the EMR vendor can warranty the functionality of its product and provide the necessary services to support it. However, OntarioMD has processes it can invoke to remedy issues that may arise with conformance to the Ontario EMR Specifications.

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2. What has changed since EMR Specifications 4.1?

The Ontario EMR Specifications was restructured from to one comprehensive EMR Specification into several individual EMR Specifications. These individual EMR Specifications collectively represent the major components of Ontario EMR Specification v4.1/4.1A. Moving forward, each EMR Specification will be managed individually and will be published with its own specific version that will evolve independently of the others over time.

Ontario EMR Specifications:

Core EMR Specification v4.2
EMR - OLIS Specification v4.2
EMR - HRM Specification v4.2
EMR - CDM Specification v4.2
EMR as a Service Specification v4.2*

* EMR as a Service v4.2 remains Draft Approved at this time.

At this time, publication of these individual Specifications does not trigger a new validation or certification requirement for the existing EMR offerings that have a certificate for EMR Specification v4.1/4.1A. Any new EMR offerings will be validated and certified according to the Ontario EMR Specifications that are in effect at the time.

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3. Why was the Ontario EMR Specification restructured?

The Ontario EMR Specification was transitioned from to one comprehensive EMR Specification into several individual EMR Specifications. Each specification will evolve independently as new requirements and/or enhancements are introduced thereby reducing the development cycle for inclusion of new requirements. OntarioMD is moving to a more flexible specification model to support future enhanced functionality and EMR use.

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4. When is the set of Ontario EMR Specifications effective?

The following individual EMR Specifications are effective April 1, 2015:

Core EMR Specification v4.2
EMR - OLIS Specification v4.2
EMR - HRM Specification v4.2
EMR - CDM Specification v4.2

Note: EMR as a Service v4.2 remains Draft Approved at this time.

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5. Do the Ontario EMR Specifications trigger validation?

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6. How does an EMR vendor's EMR offering become certified against the Ontario EMR Specifications?

The validation process for EMR vendors to be certified against Ontario EMR Specifications will be posted on the OntarioMD website under EMR Validation Process.

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