Primary Heath Care Renewal offers a new approach to health care delivery in this province. It aims to strengthen the balance of services that promote health, prevent illness and injury, and diagnose and treat episodic and chronic illness and injury. It emphasizes a team-based, interdisciplinary approach to providing health services where physicians can work more closely with other physicians and other health care professionals both locally and provincially.

The Department of Health and Community Services has established the Office of Primary Health Care to manage this project. The Centre for Health Information is working with two sites as it has been determined that information and communications technologies are important to primary health care renewal. Having the ability to share patient information between primary health care sites and authorized hospital users ensures improved patient care, faster communication of test results, reduced duplication of tests, and a better understanding by physicians of the comprehensive needs of their patients.

Tom Alteen, Health Information Network Project Manager, is assisting the Primary Health Care Teams in aligning information management requirements with provincial EHRs.