Event coincides with Opening of United Nations Session

NEW YORK, NY, Sept. 20, 2011 /CNW/ - Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) today served as an example of how to foster innovation at an international event to celebrate the launch of The Open Government Partnership, an initiative launched by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and designed to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. Canada announced its intention to join Open Government Partnership today.

Hosted by Google and coinciding with the opening of the 66th United Nations session, event attendees from around the world learned how Canada Health Infoway actively fosters the pursuit of innovation in health care.

"It is an honour to be one of two Canadian organizations selected to participate in this exciting event," said Dr. Jennifer Zelmer, Senior Vice-President, Clinical Adoption and Innovation, Canada Health Infoway. "Innovation is at the heart of Canada's efforts to harness the advantages that digitized health information delivers to both health care providers and their patients alike. I am proud to have been asked to share this unique approach to fostering innovation."

Infoway's most recent effort to spark innovation is the ImagineNation Outcomes Challenge launched September 15, 2011. The Challenge taps into the desire of Canadians and their clinicians to develop and spread innovations that improve health and health care. More than $1 million in awards are available to teams across the country whose solutions are used most and those with the strongest growth in users in four areas: e-scheduling, patient access to health information, medication reconciliation and clinical synoptic reporting.

The following leading Canadian health care organizations are working with Infoway to help shape the Challenge by providing expert advice, encouraging participation and promoting the Challenge and its results:

• Accreditation Canada
• Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations (ACAHO)
• Canadian Home Care Association
• Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC)
• Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI)
• Health Action Lobby (HEAL)
• Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP Canada)
• Patients' Association of Canada
• Patients for Patient Safety Canada
• Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada

Why a Challenge? Why now?

Challenges are a good way of eliciting and spreading innovation. In a fall 2010 Ipsos survey, gathering information about Canadians' priorities for consumer health solutions, 85 per cent of respondents agreed that running challenges like this one was a good way to get and test new ideas about how to provide health information products and services. Infoway has committed to engage in open challenges to encourage broader innovation in a cost-effective and timely way, while fostering a community of innovators across the country. The ImagineNation Outcomes and ImagineNation Ideas Challenges are part of Infoway's ongoing innovation program. Learn more at http://www.imaginenationchallenge.ca/

About Canada Health Infoway:
Canada Health Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government. Infoway jointly invests with every province and territory to accelerate the development and adoption of information and communications technology projects in Canada. Fully respecting patient confidentiality, these secure systems will provide clinicians and patients with the information they need to better support safe care decisions and manage their own health. Accessing this vital information quickly will help foster a more modern and sustainable health care system for all Canadians.

For further information:
Dan Strasbourg
Director, Media Relations
Canada Health Infoway
Tel.: (416) 595-3424
dstrasbourg@infoway-inforoute.ca