Alberta Health Vendor Conformance

Alberta Health offers independent software vendors the ability to integrate their software with the following applications:

Pharmaceutical Information Network (PIN)

Clinical Systems, such as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Pharmacy Practice Management Systems (PPMSs), can be integrated with the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and provide continuous real-time access to the Pharmaceutical Information Network (PIN). As the health care provider works in the patient's record on their local system, the patient's medication profile data is automatically exchanged with PIN. As additional new data is recorded in the local system by the pharmacist or physician, it is automatically sent to PIN, and immediately available for all other health care providers connected to the EHR. PIN supports this integration via a universal computer language, or healthcare messaging standard, called Health Level Seven (HL7). This allows different computer systems to send and receive information to each other in a secure way. As a result, Pharmacies, physician offices, primary care sites and other health facilities can exchange PIN information - even though they use different local systems.

Immunization and Adverse Reaction to Immunization (Imm/ARI)

The Immunization/Adverse Reaction to Immunization (Imm/ARI) application is the provincial repository for immunization and Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) data. Health practitioners authorized to immunize through the regulation governing their profession, submit immunization and AEFI data to Imm/ARI. These health practitioners provide immunization services from various points of service (POS). Imm/ARI is used for:
  • Monitoring the effectiveness of immunization programs
  • Monitoring of adverse events and the continued safety of the immunization program, including support of national AEFI surveillance
  • Understanding changes in disease patterns
  • Identification of underserved populations
  • Identification of immunization coverage rates
  • Evaluation of vaccine preventable disease control efforts
  • Development of immunization policies and strategies
Integrating with Imm/ARI empowers users to review their clients' Immunization information and be compliant with current immunization regulation reporting requirements without having to rely on or access other systems.

Provincial Client Registry (PCR)

Provincial Client Registry (PCR) is a repository of demographic data collected from multiple sources to create a consolidated view of the most current demographic data available for persons who have accessed the health care system in Alberta. Software vendors integrating with Netcare can integrate with PCR to search for a person by ULI or demographic parameters in order to validate person identity, health care insurance eligibility and import desired data into their systems.

Provincial Provider Registry (PPR)

The Provincial Provider Registry (PPR) is a foundational component of the Electronic Health Record (EHR), providing a trusted source of Health Service Provider information for authorized custodians of Alberta's health system. PPR provides identity management services and supports the government's desire to find efficiencies in the health system. By having the Registry collect identity, licensing and contact information from the Regulatory Colleges and linking it to trusted secondary sources of information, such as Alberta Health Services (AHS), we can provide efficiency by sharing it with authorized clinical and non-clinical systems. Over time, this can amount to a significant savings by reducing the duplicated effort those systems would need to expend to collect, manage, and maintain this same information individually.

Alberta Netcare Portal (ANP) via Parameter-Launched Browser (PLB)

Alberta Netcare Portal provides authorized Health Care Providers access to a patient's key health information such as patient demographics, hospital visits, laboratory data, transcribed reports, cancer screening reports, patient event history, immunizations, and drug data. It also provides access to online decision support and reference tools including a warning management tool and a database of all available drugs and their common dosages. Vendor software can integrate with the portal to enable authorized Health Care Providers to open a patient's EHR record directly from within the software through a Parameter-Launched Browser.

Community Information Integration (CII) / Central Patient Attachment Registry (CPAR)

Community Information Integration (CII) is a system that collects select patient information from community Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and other members of the patient’s care team through Alberta Netcare. The Central Patient Attachment Registry (CPAR) is a provincial system that captures the confirmed relationship of a primary provider and their paneled patients and displays in Alberta Netcare Portal. Together CII/CPAR enables the health system integration and improved continuity of care.

CII/CPAR:

  • Enables sharing of important healthcare information between the patient’s primary provider (MD or NP) and other providers in the patient’s circle of care
  • Facilitates sharing of consultation reports to Alberta Netcare where they are available to providers in the patient’s circle of care
  • Identifies relationships between patients and their primary provider, displays in Alberta Netcare Portal and identifies where a patient is paneled to more than one primary provider
  • Allows for family physicians to identify and coordinate when patients are on multiple panels
  • Facilitates the sharing of patient encounters with community providers and other through the Community Encounter Digest in Alberta Netcare
  • Supports notification of primary providers when their patient has a hospitalization, day surgery or ER discharge via eNotifications.

Conformance Process

Software vendors interested in integrating with Alberta Health applications are required to successfully complete Alberta Health Conformance. Conformance, conducted by the Alberta Health Conformance team, ensures that the vendor software or Point-of-Service (POS) system adheres to all Conformance requirements prior to a vendor deploying their software in a live, Production environment.

See the following links for additional information about the Alberta Health Vendor Conformance Process and a list of recently conformed vendors:

Vendor Intake

If you are an independent software vendor interested in integrating your software with one or more of the Alberta Health applications listed above, please download and complete the Vendor Intake Form to indicate your interest and provide some background information.

Prior to submitting your completed Vendor Intake Form, please ensure:

Submit the completed form to: Health.EHRVendorSupport@gov.ab.ca