History

The Physician Office System Program (POSP) was established in 2001 to help physicians automate their practices.

In 2003, POSP became one of four strategic physician agreements under an eight-year Trilateral Master Agreement between Alberta Health and Wellness, the Alberta Medical Association and Alberta's Regional Health Authorities (now Alberta Health Services).

In 2006, it was determined through trilateral negotiations that the number of electronic medical record (EMR) vendors should be reduced and more comprehensive vendor requirements should be put into place to recognize the increasing need for alignment and integration among information systems in health care.

Alberta Health and Wellness conducted a competitive request for proposal (RFP) process to select the vendors that would be eligible to provide new electronic medical record solutions under POSP. The new solutions were necessary to allow physicians to receive the full benefit of EMRs including automation of care pathways and best-practice templates, IT solutions (hardware, software licence, training, helpdesk service, network connectivity, systems management, etc.) and enhanced interoperability.

In July 2008, Alberta Health and Wellness announced MD Physician Services (formerly Practice Solutions), Med Access and Wolf Medical Systems as the shortlisted vendors following its electronic medical record RFP.

In March 2010, Alberta Health and Wellness granted MD Physician Services (formerly Practice Solutions), Med Access and Wolf Medical Systems approval to begin deploying the new VCUR 2008 EMR solutions.

In April 2011, Governance of POSP changed and is now provided through the Interim Advisory Committee which is composed of representatives from Alberta Health and Wellness, Alberta Health Services and the Alberta Medical Association.