< + > MEDITECH Is Teaming Up with Rivals to Address Interoperability in Canada

Progress on interoperability has been slow and fragmented. Thankfully that is starting to change. A recent cross-vendor initiative in Canada is proving that with the right technology and willingness to collaborate, bi-directional data sharing across major EHRs and government databases can happen faster than expected.

At the #eHealth25 conference in Toronto, Healthcare IT Today had the opportunity to visit with the MEDITECH team. We wanted to get an update on the company’s Traverse Exchange Canada interoperability solution – something we saw at the eHealth conference a year ago [see MEDITECH Addressing Canada’s Interoperability Challenge with a Federated Approach].

Since the last eHealth conference, MEDITECH has connected many new data sources to Traverse Exchange Canada, including some from rivals. Here is our conversation with Allie Anderson, Senior Regulatory Program Manager – Canada and Robert Molloy, Director, Canadian Market and Product Strategy from MEDITECH.

Key Takeaways

1. Traverse is making interoperability real. MEDITECH now enables bi-directional data exchange not just between its own systems, but also with Epic, Oracle Health and PointClickCare across 100+ Canadian hospitals.
2. Unified patient summaries reduce cognitive overload. Traverse’s new consolidated summary viewer de-duplicates clinical data (like meds, allergies, and labs) and surfaces only what matters, helping clinicians find what they need faster without sifting through multiple documents.
3. Shared infrastructure is speeding up secure connections. Instead of redoing privacy and risk assessments for every site, MEDITECH’s network model allows organizations to connect once and benefit together – reducing administrative burden and accelerating rollout.

EHR Vendors Are Playing Nice—and It’s Working
In Canada, hospitals using MEDITECH are already exchanging patient summaries with those on Epic, Oracle Health and PointClickCare. This means clinicians are getting a much more complete picture of their patients without additional administrative work.

“There has been a great deal of collaboration with the other vendors,” explained Molloy. “They are exchanging with us and us with them. It’s a bi-directional exchange. We will soon have another 10 Epic instances connected on our network.”

Even government data sources (like OLIS for provincial lab data) are now accessible via the MEDITECH Traverse Exchange network in Canada.

MEDITECH Smart Summaries Reduce Cognitive Load

More clinical data is great until it overwhelms clinicians. That’s why tools that consolidate and de-duplicate incoming data – filtering it down to a clean, unified patient summary – are a welcome addition to EHRs.

“Our new solution is going to de-duplicate data and consolidate it into one patient summary document,” said Anderson. “This is what clinicians are looking for.”

MEDITECH in Canada now lets users access a single document view (via Traverse Exchange) that pulls from multiple systems while stripping out duplications in meds, labs, and allergies.

Shared Infrastructure Means Faster Rollouts with Less Red Tape
Rather than making every hospital repeat privacy impact assessments and risk reviews MEDITECH Traverse uses a “connect once, benefit many” approach. When MEDITECH makes a connection to a data source, they do all the heavy lifting up front – getting the security and regulatory approvals across all connected sites. Once that connection is made, then anyone using that connection does not have to go through that same red tape.

“The approach is to pilot and review all those details to make sure we’ve done it well,” said Malloy. “Then we can rapidly deploy it to the other hospitals that are on the network. One endpoint used multiple times.”

The result? Quicker go-lives and less admin fatigue for IT teams.

Interoperability Is No Longer a Waiting Game
Its encouraging to see practical interoperability happening in Canada. For too long, there has been talk about sharing data, but precious little activity. MEDITECH and its rivals are banding together to make interoperability happen without government mandates. This is the way it should be.

Learn more about MEDITECH at https://ehr.meditech.com/

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