The following terms appear throughout the PS-CA Specifications:
| Term / Acronym | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Business/Legal Interoperability Requirements | Requirements that enable independent organizations to execute a collaborative process or service. |
| Business Requirements: Non-Testable | Business requirements that are not directly traceable to an IHE profile in the PS-CA specifications (e.g., provided for consideration and to support and provide guidance to implementers of the PS-CA). |
| Business Requirements: Testable | Business requirements that are directly traceable to an IHE profile in the PS-CA specifications. |
| CA:FeX | The CA:FeX Interoperability Specifications (Canadian FHIR Exchange (CA:FeX)) seek to promote FHIR RESTful exchange patterns, developed by industry-leading FHIR standards that can be applied on top of an existing non-FHIR infrastructure just as easily as it can be applied on top of FHIR servers. |
| CCDD | The Canadian Clinical Drug Data Set (CCDD) is the drug terminology for use in digital health solutions such as electronic prescribing in Canada. |
| Central Infrastructure | A Central Infrastructure collects health information from participating organizations and stores the information in a centralized place. The Infrastructure also provides access control. Typically, the central infrastructure is under jurisdictional control. |
| Clinical Data eXchange (CDX) | CDX is a clinical distribution service developed by Interior Health. Northern Health (NH) and Interior Health (IH) have collaborated to facilitate the sharing of Health Authority clinical information to participating provider EMR systems using this service. |
| Conformance Testing | Conformance testing is a formal process of assessment focused on ensuring clinical solutions and systems accurately implement a particular specification (e.g. PS-CA Specifications) by ensuring there is conformance to the stated parameters that are being claimed in the standard. |
| Cross Border, Scheduled Care | Scheduled care of a resident of Canada that is delivered in/by another country. |
| Cross Border, Unscheduled Care | Unscheduled care of a resident of Canada that is delivered in/by another country. |
| DIN | A Drug Identification Number (DIN) is a computer-generated eight digit number assigned by Health Canada to a drug product prior to being marketed in Canada. |
| Document Repository (Local or Central) | A document repository is a shared storage space for clinical documents (Patient Summaries) that can be hosted locally (i.e., at the document producer) or at the HIE Central Infrastructure and can be accessed by authorized users. |
| DPD | The Drug Product Database (DPD) is used to find drugs authorized for sale by Health Canada. The DPD is updated nightly and includes: availability of the drug in Canada. |
| Electronic Health Record (EHR) | The EHR represents the Clinical Solution that contains a secure and private collection of a patient's health information in a digital format, which is shareable across different health care settings / clinical solutions that are integrated. The EHR facilitates better sharing and interpretation of health information among the health care professionals involved in the care of the patient. For example:
|
| Extensible PS-CA Dataset | Extensible PS-CA Dataset: PS-CA content that can be extended for use in a PS-CA use case scenario that complements the primary PS-CA use cases. *Note: Extensible PS-CA Dataset refers to the addition of data domains such as Family History. |
| FHIR Repository | A FHIR repository is a clinical data repository built around the HL7 FHIR standard used for storing clinical data. |
| Foundational Interoperability | Foundational interoperability is the ability of one IT system to send data to another IT system. The receiving IT system does not necessarily need to be able to interpret the exchanged data — it must simply be able to acknowledge receipt of the data payload. This is the most basic tier of interoperability. |
| HCP | Health Care Provider |
| Health Information Access Layer (HIAL) | An interface specification for the EHR infostructure that defines service components, service roles, information model and messaging standards required for the exchange of EHR data and execution of interoperability profiles between EHR services. (Source:https://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/en/component/edocman/resources/technical-documents/391-ehrs-blueprint-v2-full ; Page.340) |
| Health Records System | A health records system may include an electronic medical records system, a hospital information system, a clinical information system, an electronic health records system or a personal health records system. The term is broadly used to describe system actors that may produce and/or consume a PS-CA. Jurisdictional implementation patterns will determine which systems are used to create, access, consume and manage patient summaries. |
| HIS | Health Information System |
| Health Level 7 (HL7) | Founded in 1987, HL7 is a not-for-profit standards developing organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. (Source: http://www.hl7.org/about/index.cfm?ref=nav) |
| HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) | Expected to be a next generation standards framework created by HL7. FHIR combines the best features of HL7‘s Version 2, Version 3 and product lines while leveraging the latest web standards and applying a tight focus on implementability. |
| Information/Semantic Interoperability Requirements | Requirements for syntax and semantics such that data exchanged between health record systems can be interpreted and the meaning of the data ascertained. |
| Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) | IHE is an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information. IHE promotes the coordinated use of established standards such as DICOM and HL7 to address specific clinical needs in support of optimal patient care. Systems developed in accordance with IHE communicate with one another better, are easier to implement, and enable care providers to use information more effectively. (Source: https://www.ihe.net/) |
| IHE Actor | IHE Actors are responsible for producing, managing and/or acting on information in the context of an IHE Profile (e.g., Primary Care Provider, EMR, EHR, etc.). (Source: https://wiki.ihe.net/index.php/Actors) |
| IHE Domain | IHE Domains are responsible for the development and maintenance of the IHE Technical Frameworks that document the Integration Profiles. Each Domain manages Integration Profiles in a particular part of healthcare (e.g., Virtual Care). (Source: https://wiki.ihe.net/index.php/Domains) |
| IHE Profiles | IHE Profiles describe specific solutions to interoperability problems. Profiles specify how "Actors" use standards to address a specific healthcare use case (e.g., Medication, Allergy Intolerance, etc.). (Source: https://wiki.ihe.net/index.php/Profiles) |
| IHE Transactions | IHE Transactions are interactions between actors that communicate the required information through standards-based messages (e.g., patient look-up query, send patient summary information, etc.). |
| International Patient Summary (IPS) | The IPS is a a minimal, non-exhaustive set of data elements defined by ISO/EN 17269 and realized by HL7 in both CDA and FHIR. The IPS is a snapshot clinical document that can be used for planned or unplanned care of a person locally or across borders. It emphasizes the data required and the necessary conformance of the use cases for an international patient summary. (Source: https://wiki.ihe.net/index.php/International_Patient_Summary_(IPS)) |
| Local, Scheduled Care | Scheduled care of a resident of Canada that is delivered in/by the Canadian health care system. This includes care provided in federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions, as well as cross-jurisdictional care. |
| Local, Unscheduled Care | Unscheduled care of a resident of Canada that is delivered in/by the Canadian health care system. This includes care provided in federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions, as well as cross-jurisdictional care. |
| Longitudinal Electronic Health Record | A longitudinal electronic health record is a single comprehensive patient record comprised of data from numerous data sources across the healthcare continuum. |
| Netcare | Alberta Netcare is the name for all the projects related to the provincial Electronic Health Record (EHR) - a secure and confidential electronic system of Alberta patients’ health information: a single, comprehensive, and integrated patient record. The EHR stores information about:
|
| Patient Portal | A patient portal is a web-based access point that enables secure patient access to personal health information and other self-serve health IT services. For example, a patient portal can be hosted on an EMR solution. |
| Patient Proxy | An individual or entity that has the authority to act on behalf of a subject of care/patient. Proxies can include parents of dependent children, parents of dependent adults, powers of attorney etc. |
Patient Summary-CA (PS-CA) | An electronic patient summary for use at the point of care comprised of, at minimum, the required elements of the Patient Summary-CA data set and specifications. The PS-CA is a health record extract, at a snapshot in time, comprised of a standardized collection of clinical and contextual information (retrospective, concurrent, prospective), including the minimum necessary and sufficient data to inform a patient's treatment at the point of care. The PS-CA is condition-independent and specialty-agnostic, irrespective of the condition of the patient or the treatment sought or specialty of the provider delivering care. |
| PS-CA Author | A health care provider who authors and/or curates a PS-CA. |
| PS-CA Consumer | A health records system (e.g., EMR, HIS, CIS, PHR, or EHR) that enables access to or receipt of a Patient Summary-CA by an authorized health care provider or the subject of care/patient. |
| PS-CA Producer | A health records system (e.g., EMR, HIS, CIS, PHR, or EHR) that creates/produces a Patient Summary-CA in response to a request from an authorized health care provider, the subject of care or another authorized health records system. |
| Patient Summary-CA Solution | Any combination of health information technology assets and processes that enables a Patient Summary-CA to be created, communicated, managed and dispositioned between a PS-CA Producer and a PS-CA Consumer. Patient Summary-CA Solutions can be comprised of various Producer and Consumer systems including: EMR, HIS, CIS, PHR, EHR or any combination of these systems. |
| PS-CA Specifications | pan-Canadian Patient Summary Interoperability Specifications: The pan-Canadian Patient Summary Interoperability Specification is an implementable, testable specification, based on the IHE International Patient Summary specification and the HL7 IPS Implementation Guide. For more information on the PS-CA Specifications, please go here. |
| Semantic Interoperability | Semantic interoperability is the ability of health IT systems to exchange and interpret information — then actively use the information that has been exchanged. Semantic interoperability is the highest level of interoperability. “Semantic interoperability takes advantage of both the structuring of the data exchange and the codification of the data including vocabulary so that the receiving information technology systems can interpret the data,” stated HIMSS. Achieving semantic interoperability allows providers to exchange patient summary information with other caregivers and authorized parties using different EHR systems to improve care quality, safety, and efficiency. This level of interoperability allows healthcare organizations to seamlessly share patient information to reduce duplicative testing, enable better-informed clinical decision-making, and avoid adverse health events. Effective health data exchange can also help to improve care coordination, reduce hospital readmissions, and ultimately save money. While semantic interoperability is the goal, most healthcare organizations are still working to establish foundational and structural interoperability. Hospitals and health systems can utilize existing health data standards to achieve the lower levels of interoperability and set a solid foundation for future improvements in health data exchange. |
| Structural Interoperability | Structural interoperability is “the uniform movement of healthcare data from one system to another such that the clinical or operational purpose and meaning of the data is preserved and unaltered,” HIMSS states. To achieve structural interoperability, the recipient system should be able to interpret information at the data field level. This is the intermediate level of interoperability. |
| Technical Interoperability Requirements | Requirements for one health record system to send data to another health record system and for the receiving system to acknowledge receipt of the data payload. |
| Terminology | Collection of uniquely identifiable concepts with associated representations, designations, associations and meanings. |