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Canadian Initiatives

Provincial Initiatives

• Provincial initiatives:
  • e-HLbc: Electronic Health Library of BC: "The Electronic Health Library of BC provides the academic and health care community of British Columbia with easy access to online health library resources. The purpose of the e-HLbc is to support and improve practice, education, and research in the health sciences. Member organizations include all publicly funded BC post-secondary institutions providing health education, the BC Ministry of Advanced Education, the BC Ministry of Health, the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development, all BC Health Authorities, and the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons."

   

Alberta

• Provincial initiatives:

• The Health Knowledge Network (HKN) has been licensing health information on behalf of the health practice and research sector and post-secondary sector in Alberta since 1994 and in Saskatchewan beginning in 1999. HKN is currently undertaking a provincial needs assessment to determine the changing needs of health practitioners and researchers in Alberta. The outcome of the report will be used to consider a case for support to fund a provincial health license for Alberta's health sector. HKN continues to investigate different ways to license health information in a multi-library type environment.
• Health Information Network Calgary -- The Health Information Network Calgary (HINC) is the partnership under which the University of Calgary (U of C) provides library services and access to
  the latest evidence-based medical research to Alberta Health Services staff working in the Calgary zone, and to patients and their families. Library services are provided by the U of C Health Sciences Library and Knowledge Centres located in Calgary hospitals. Staff without a Knowledge Centre on site are served through the U of C Library's outreach services and online collections. They also provide library resources and services and the training to help use them effectively.
• Other resources/services available:

CARNA (the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta) provides access to CINAHL as well as document delivery and librarian consultation to its members. (See http://www.nurses.ab.ca/library.html)

Saskatchewan

• Provincial initiatives:

  • SHIRP - Saskatchewan Health Information Resources Partnership: The University of Saskatchewan Library, working in co-operation with the Saskatchewan Academic Health Sciences Network (SAHSN) and the Saskatchewan Health Libraries Association (SHLA) developed an integrated plan for province-wide access to library health resources. This multi-million dollar initiative, funded by the provincial government and operating from the University of Saskatchewan Health Sciences Library, has four phases of implementation over four years and, as a result, will provide access to a suite of health information products, not previously available, to all healthcare practitioners in the province. This unique suite of resources includes access to six databases, over 1,500 online journals and 110 electronic texts and is a subset of the University of Saskatchewan resources. Phases One and Two of the project are completed. Phase One was to acquire and distribute a suite of resources for the Health Sciences Library at the University of Saskatchewan to meet LCME/CACMS undergraduate accreditation standards. Phase Two was to acquire and distribute a unique suite of online resources to Saskatoon, Regina Qu'Appelle and Prince Albert Parkland Health Regions. Phase Three which will begin in April 2005 will be to extend this unique suite of resources to all remaining health regions and post secondary institutions within Saskatchewan with a health program. Finally, Phase Four which is scheduled for April 2006 will connect all remaining health care providers not affiliated with the university or a health region. At full implementation which is expected to be March 2007 this initiative will be a major step forward in solving the challenging problem of providing integrated access to health information to all health care providers, regardless of affiliation, across the province.

   

Ontario

• Provincial initiative proposals:

  • proposal by the Ontario Hospital eHealth Council, eHealth Library Working Group "Enabling eHealth through Information Access: the case for a province-wide eHealth Library in Ontario"
• Provincial initiatives:
  • OntarioMD - "OntarioMD.ca is a gateway that provides physicians with web access to professional and practice-related products and services through a single, secure point of entry. It is available to all Ontario physicians as well as to medical students and interns, and it's free."
  • NOHIN (Northern Ontario Health Information Network) - formerly NOVL (Northern Ontario Virtual Library).
  • The Seniors Health Research Transfer Network - The SHRTN Library Service Initiative is a modern hybrid, network-based library service that provides access to high quality knowledge to long term care (LTC) and community care workers in the Ottawa and Waterloo areas. The long-term goal of the project is to provide equitable access to the best current information about patient care to all individuals who care for seniors in LTC homes and in the community in other parts of Ontario and across Canada.

Québec

• Provincial Initiatives:

• In 2003, the government of Quebec established four integrated university networks of health (Réseau universitaire intégré de santé – RUIS).  The province was divided into four sections, one for each of the four Faculties of Medicine in the province, that is, that of McGill University, of the Université de Montréal, of the Université de Sherbrooke and of l’Université Laval.  These networks offer specialized, tertiary care, instruction, and research coordinated by the Faculties of Medicine working with their affiliated teaching hospitals and university health centres. 

• Collaborative initiatives:

• The Electronic Resources Consortium of the RUISUM (Université de Montréal Réseau universitaire intégré de santé): The Faculty of Medicine in collaboration with the University Library administration has established a consortium to offer electronic health resources.  RUISUM groups together facilities providing more than 40% of the province’s health care services and includes six regional health and social services agencies serving 3 million inhabitants.  Offered in partnership with affiliated teaching facilities and regional health agencies, the online library of RUISUM, launched in November 2006, enables health professionals to access electronic resources (MEDLINE, EMBASE, EBM Reviews, CINAHL and more than 250 electronic journals) in all facilities in the area covered by RUISUM.  In addition, training sessions on the electronic resources are offered to the information specialists of the RUIS through the University Health Library.

 

Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island)

• Collaborative initiatitives:

• New Brunswick is now collaborating with the Université de Sherbrooke to deliver francophone medical curriculum. The province is also exploring the delivery of anglophone medical curriculum with Dalhousie University.
• New Brunswick:

• New Brunswick Hospital Consortium/Consortium des Hôpitaux du Nouveau Brunswick: Library Services departments at all 8 Regional Health Authorities in New Brunswick have joined in an initial group purchase of an electronic resource - a subscription to the ProQuest Nursing Collection.
• Micromedex: There is a provincial license through the Department of Health and Wellness. It is available via the Wellness Network, the secure private network linking all hospitals and Regional Health Authorities.
• Nova Scotia:

• Doctors Nova Scotia (formerly The Medical Society of Nova Scotia) - doctorsNS.com - provides electronic resources to members only
• Micromedex: a province-wide subscription to this database has been set up for all Health Authorities in Nova Scotia
• Atlantic Health Knowledge Partnership: "The Atlantic Health Knowledge Partnership (AHKP) is an informal consortium of health knowledge brokers in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. This group of experts is concerned with managing knowledge based health information, an integral part of health information management. [They] cooperate in the review and purchasing of electronic products that can be networked among some or all of [their] institutions."

Newfoundland and Labrador

• Provincial initiatives: