Patients could see their health care in Ontario improve as eHealth moves toward having electronic records right across the province.
A new $72-million project called ConnectingGTA will see 700 health providers joined up on an electronic system.
The project, which involves 43 Toronto-area hospitals and 201 long-term care facilities, would let any health clinic pull up a patient's personal electronic health record on a computer.
Officials said it will take two years until the new system is up and running, covering half of all Ontario residents.
"We are figuring out how we make these records interoperable, how we keep them private, secure and how we tag records so we are putting them together properly," said eHealth CEO Greg Reed.
Meanwhile Health Minister Deb Matthews said she was delighted with the "major step" forward.
The opposition, however, said they would remain skeptical about the project until they see the it in action.
About $1 billion has been spent over ten years to develop electronic health records.
The entire system scheduled to be completed by 2015.
With reports from Paul Bliss
