Chris

In today's complex health and communications environments, health care systems rely heavily on secure and efficient information exchange. This book tells the story of an exchange &#8212 of a major IT initiative that was designed, developed, and implemented for the sake of one of the largest growing customer bases in society today: people in need of health care.

THE NEED: A strong, functional, integrated, and streamlined way to present, share, and use vital client information and records within Ontario's system of 14 (formerly 42) Community Care Access Centres (CCACs).

THE CHALLENGE: Creating and implementing this system with the CCACs in spite of the incompatible "legacy" information-systems they were already using &#8212 and to do so in a seemingly impossible 18 months, rather than the three years initially scoped for the project.

THE SOLUTION: CHRIS &#8212 Client Health Related Information System &#8212 a vast and complex system that is connecting the people of Ontario (and increasingly the information systems of hospitals and clinics) to the CCACs.

This book shows:

• The design, deployment, and triumphant delivery of CHRIS
• The implications of CHRIS: REGIONALLY &#8212 for the Ontario health care system; NATIONALLY, now that Canada is moving toward an electronic health record for each citizen and resident of the country; and INTERNATIONALLY, as the US and other countries are coming onstream with national health care programs
• How to get a workplace engaged and committed to enormous new change
• Best practices in hiring and managing consultants

Colin Zvaniga is the Chief Information Officer of the Ontario Association of Community Care Access Centres (OACCAC). He has more than 15 years of experience leading technology operations and initiatives across large-scale, complex, international organizations &#8212 and has successfully built high-performance teams in many sectors.