The e-Health vision is that all systems will be province-wide, and include seven projects:

  1. the adoption of physician Electronic Medical Records: encouraging and funding doctors to move from a paper-based office record-keeping system to a computer-based system so all their patient records will be stored electronically and be readily available for uploading to the EHR system;
  2. the creation of an “interoperable electronic health record” or iEHR for every BC citizen containing their health information uploaded automatically from their doctor’s EMR, and connected to their lab test results from PLIS, diagnostic imaging from CDI and prescription information from PharmaNet and all related information;
  3. a system to collect lab tests: the Provincial Lab Information System, or PLIS;
  4. a system to collect diagnostic imaging tests such as MRIs and CT scans:  the Connecting Diagnostic Imaging system or CDI;
  5. the PharmaNet prescription records management system: PharmaNet eRx;
  6. a system to permit health care to be delivered long-distance or to remote communities: Telehealth;
  7. a system to collect personal health information into a public health tracking system: the Public Health Information Project, or PHIP.

In addition to these seven projects there is the Health Information Access Layer, or HIAL, which will act as a sort of gatekeeper to the system, sitting above each separate project and controlling access to the various sources of information. Finally, Provider and Client Registries have already been built, which house demographic information about health providers and about clients, respectively.

The Province of BC defines e-Health this way: an integrated set of telecommunication technologies, accurate and timely information, and related process enhancements that together enable the efficient delivery of health care services, and incorporate the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Telehealth.

The province promises that this will:

  1. improve the speed and safety of health care by giving health professionals electronic access to patient information when they need it;
  2. impose strict privacy protection and limit access rights;
  3. reduce delays, errors, test duplication and financial and environmental costs.

Critics do not have much faith in these promises. This section briefly discusses each of these projects and outlines some of the risks that they pose.