To support quality improvement and research, family physicians and medical research networks need guaranteed, safe and affordable access to the data in electronic medical records (EMR) from the companies that provide the software, according to the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
The college, along with the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network and the University of Toronto Practice-Based Research Network, recently issued a position statement decrying demands imposed by EMR vendors, such as prohibitive fees, restrictions on third-party extraction and analyses, and limitations on the type and frequency of data extractions. Read more in CMAJ.