Originally published February 16, 2006
Canada Health Infoway by March will have invested $562 million in health IT projects, Richard Alvarez, CEO of the federally funded not-for-profit corporation leading e-health in Canada, said at the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference, Government Health IT reports. Canada Health Infoway is a federally funded not-for-profit corporation leading health IT adoption in Canada.
Canada has invested $151 million in electronic health records systems and $130 million in diagnostic imaging systems development, investments that provincial, regional or local health care organizations have matched.
Alvarez estimates that the country’s health IT investments will save $6 billion annually in health care costs. Alvarez said Canada still has more than $500 million to invest in health IT projects, with the goal of providing 50% of Canadians with EHRs by 2009.
Canada, which has a population of 31 million, is outpacing the United States, which has a population of 295 million, in health IT investment, according to Government Health IT. The U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, which was formed two years ago, has a budget of $111 million for fiscal year 2006. President Bush has asked for $169 million for health IT in the FY 2007 budget (Brewin, Government Health IT, 2/15).
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