TORONTO, May 11, 2017 /CNW/ - Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) is pleased to announce that it has selected TELUS Health as the successful bidder for the technical solution provider for PrescribeIT™, Canada's e-prescribing service.

"TELUS Health proposed an innovative approach that together with their advanced capabilities and capacity to deliver on our vision make them an ideal choice for PrescribeIT™," commented Michael Green, President and CEO, Canada Health Infoway.

"As a longstanding technology provider enabling improved health outcomes for Canadians, we are proud to be working with Infoway to develop and operate PrescribeIT. PrescribeIT will be built on our open, interoperable and vendor agnostic TELUS Health Exchange platform, which is already enabling collaboration and efficiency in the primary care ecosystem," said Paul Lepage, President of TELUS Health. "We look forward to advancing this service in support of driving better health outcomes for Canadians and helping to bring PrescribeIT to patients as soon as possible."

Infoway's experienced management team, together with TELUS Health will serve the interest of all Canadians, prescribers, pharmacists and pharmacies by ensuring patient choice of pharmacy, safeguarding patient data and upholding privacy and security standards while optimizing existing investments in provincial drug information systems.

"PrescribeIT™ will greatly aid policy makers and health care providers alike in the struggle against opioid misuse," noted Green.  "Through a single, national e-prescribing system, we can reduce fraud and abuse by eliminating handwritten prescriptions, avoid fragmentation of patient health care information, and ensure data integrity for opioid monitoring and surveillance."

The PrescribeIT™ team is currently preparing for trial runs of PrescribeIT™ in select communities in Alberta and Ontario starting in mid-2017 in preparation for a full-scale rollout across the country starting in mid-2018. For more information on PrescribeIT™ please visit www.infoway-inforoute.ca/PrescribeIT.  For more information on TELUS Health, please visit www.telushealth.co.

About Canada Health Infoway

Infoway helps to improve the health of Canadians by working with partners to accelerate the development, adoption and effective use of digital health across Canada. Through our investments, we help deliver better quality and access to care and more efficient delivery of health services for patients and clinicians. Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government.