Read on Twitter
Small thread: I think I see why it is so hard to book vaccines in Toronto. I checked out a number of hospitals and they seem Verto to do their bookings https://verto.health/platform-engage/#:~:text=01-,Activate%20Patients%20%26%20Caregivers,before%20my%20husband%20was%20transferred.&text=It's%20helpful%20to%20have%20the%20information.%E2%80%9D
Pharmacies, on the other hand, use at least two other platforms: this https://www.medmehealth.com/ and this https://www.bookmyshot.com/covidshot/%28416%29%20239-1243 and there may be more. /2
The pharmacy websites I came across are much like independent businesses (think restaurants but without opentable). They seem to be point solutions for each place. No integration, no larger database, no centralized system/solution. /3
Nova Scotia OTOH uses this https://www.canimmunize.ca/en/home and it does seem centralized. I see both pharmacies and the IWK listed there. /4
The integration layer for Ontario is "on the glass" (i.e. you go to a government web site, but then you get shunted off to various independent web sites). NS integration is all the way back to the data layer. MUCH bettter. /5
I can't say why Ontario went this way and NS went the other way. I suspect the driving architectural principle was speed so Ontario would have done what it did: build on top of existing systems but I don't know. /6
Anyway, I don't see a simple solution to go from what is currently in place in Ontario to NS, but I could be wrong. I don't have enough information to know. But I know a few things :) /fin
PS I worked in two large scale IT projects with Ontario. One had to do with smart meters and one with children’s aid. For power distribution, there are 60 distributors through the province, most with their own systems ( https://www.eda-on.ca/FOR-CONSUMERS/Ontarios-Local-Hydro-Utilities)
For children aid societies, there are 60 different organizations, many with their own systems ( https://www.oacas.org/childrens-aid-child-protection/facts-and-figures/) I have to believe health care is similar. Integrating IT systems to deliver services in Ontario is very hard.
50 not 60
So when people saying why can’t this be faster and better, this is me
