Home > Glossary of Terms, Acronyms, and Abbreviations
Glossary
| Term/Acronym/Abbreviation | Description |
|---|---|
| Application Programming Interface (API) | A set of standard software interrupts, calls, functions, and data formats that can be used by an application program to access network services, devices, applications, or operating systems. |
| Client Health & Related Information System (CHRIS) | A provincial web‑based platform used to support home and community care and long‑term care placement, offering tools for referral management, intake, care planning, and secure information exchange. |
| Dates Affecting Readiness to Consult (DARC) | Periods of time between the referral and consult date when the patient is unavailable for a first consultation due to patient-related reasons. |
| Dates Affecting Readiness to Treat (DART) | Periods of time between the Decision To Treat (DTT) date or the Order Received date and the Actual Procedure date when the patient is unavailable for the procedure due to patient-related reasons. |
| Digital Health Information Exchange (DHIEX) | A regulatory framework that gives Ontario Health the ability to define and implement the health information standards and requirements for use in interoperability specifications. It regulates digital health information exchange in Ontario for consistent sharing of meaningful health information across health systems for the benefit of patients and health care providers. |
| Date of Birth (DOB) | Refers to the year, month, and day a patient was born. |
| Digital health asset | Has the meaning set out in section 26 of O. Reg. 324/04 and generally means a product or service that, (a) is selected, developed or used by a health information custodian, and (b) enables the custodian to use electronic means to collect, use, modify, disclose, transmit, retain or dispose of personal health information to provide care or assist in the provision of care. |
| Digital Health Information Exchange (DHIEX) | A regulatory framework that gives Ontario Health the ability to define and implement the health information standards and requirements for use in interoperability specifications. It regulates digital health information exchange in Ontario for consistent sharing of meaningful health information across health systems for the benefit of patients and health care providers. |
| Draft Standard for Trial Use (DSTU) | An archaic term for any X12 standard that has been approved since the most recent release of X12 American National Standards. The current equivalent term is X12 Standard |
| Electronic Health Record (EHR) | A computer-based clinical data for an individual across multiple locations. This longitudinal health record includes data from a number of different interoperable Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Electronic Patient Records (EPRs) and is shared across multiple jurisdictions. |
| Electronic Medical Record (EMR) | An electronic medical record (EMR) generally refers to an electronic version of the paper health record. An EMR system can be used by one or more health information custodians in a primary care practice setting or community-based care setting to collect or use personal health information such as a patient's family history, lab requests and results, cancer screening tests, emergency room visits, prescriptions, etc, for the provision of care. |
| Emergency Room (ER) | The part of a hospital where people who have severe injuries or sudden illnesses are taken for emergency treatment. |
| Electronic Referral / Electronic Consult (eReC) | eReC (Electronic Referral / Electronic Consult) is defined as a standardized framework for the digital exchange of patient-specific information between healthcare providers. |
| Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) | An act that provides a right of access to records held by public bodies and regulates how public bodies manage personal information. |
| HALO | The Health Application Lightweight Protocol (HALO) is a standardized technology framework that enables approved jurisdictional and vendor applications to seamlessly integrate into any authorized Point of care systems, such as EMRs, with the ability to coordinate their activities with SMART applications and other jurisdictional assets. |
| HCN | A number assigned to every individual eligible to receive provincial health care services under the provincial/territory health insurance plan. |
| Health care practitioner | A person who is a member within the meaning of the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 who provides health care; a person registered as a drugless practitioner under the Drugless Practitioners Act who provides health care; a person who is a member of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers who provides health care; and any other person whose primary function is to provide health care for payment. |
| Healthcare Provider | An individual or organization with HIC or non-HIC designation. |
| Health Information Custodian (HIC) | A person or organization that has custody or control of personal health information for the purpose of health care or other health-related duties. Examples include physicians, hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories and the Ministry of Health. |
| Health Information System (HIS) | Any system that captures, stores, manages, or transmits information related to the health of individuals or activities of organizations that work within the health sector. |
| Health Level Seven (HL7®) | A set of international standards used to move clinical and administrative health data between applications. The application layer, or "layer 7" in the Open Systems Interconnection paradigm, is the focus of the HL7 standards. |
| HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Standard (HL7 FHIR®) | A standard for exhanging healthcare information electronically that defines a set of "Resources" that represent granular clinical concepts. The resources can be managed in isolation, or aggregated into complex documents. Technically, FHIR is designed for the web; the resources are based on simple Extensible Markup Language (XML) or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) structures, with an http-based RESTful protocol where each resource has predictable Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Where possible, open internet standards are used for data representation. |
| Health Service Directory ( HSD) | Used by HCP or service provider to discover services and service providers to address eReferral needs. RMS typically bundle in HSD functionality to better support referral/consult workflows, or in cases where the POS system has the required capabilities to support the referral/consult workflow, the HSD could be centrally managed (i.e. jurisdictional) or provided by a 3rd party and integrated with the POS system. An HSD may provide one or more of multiple functions, including: (a) Health service discovery mechanisms; (b) Health service definition hosting and data federation services; (c) Integration with a forms repository to associate health services with forms used to support the referral process; |
| Health Service Provider (HSP) | Entities such as hospitals, psychiatric facilities, long-term care providers, community service providers, and more, as defined by specific Acts (2019, S.O. 2019, c. 5 - Bill 74). |
| Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) | A communication link protocol used by web servers and browsers to transfer/exchange HTML documents or files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) over the Internet. |
| Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPs) | A communication link protocol protects data transmission between a user's web browser and a website. It is the secure version of HTTP |
| Implementation Guide (IG) | A document explaining the proper use of a standard for a specific purpose. |
| Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) | A standards development organization (SDO) for the Internet. The IETF makes voluntary standards that are often adopted by Internet users, network operators, and equipment vendors, and it thus helps shape the trajectory of the development of the Internet. |
| Interoperability specification | Has the meaning set out in section 26 of O. Reg. 324/04 and generally means a business or technical requirement established by the Agency that applies to a digital health asset or to a digital health asset’s interaction with other digital health assets, and that may include, without being limited to, a requirement related to, (a) the content of data or a common data set for electronic data, (b) the format or structure of messages exchanged between digital health assets, (c) the migration, translation or mapping of data from one digital health asset to another, (d) terminology, including vocabulary, code sets or classification systems, or (e) privacy or security. |
| Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) | An independent oversight body responsible for educating the public concerning their rights under Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA), and ensuring organizations fulfill their obligations under these Acts. |
| Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) | A not-for-profit corporations responsible for planning, delivering and funding local health care to 14 different geographic areas of the province. This includes including primary care, home and community care, community health centres, hospitals, long-term care and mental health and addiction services. |
| Medical Record Number (MRN) | A unique number assigned by a facility (e.g. hospital, community pharmacy) to identify an actual or potential recipient of care. The medical record number is organization specific. |
| Minister | Minister of Health |
| Ministry of Health (MOH) | The Ontario government ministry in charge of overseeing the province's healthcare system. Formerly known as Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC). |
| National Health and Social Care System (NHS) | A Government-funded medical and healthcare services that are accessible to all United Kingdom (UK) residents without requiring payment of the whole service's cost. |
| Nurse Practitioner (NP) | Registered nurses who have additional education and nursing experience, which enables them to: - Autonomously diagnose and treat illnesses - Order and interpret tests - Prescribe medications - Perform medical procedures |
| Object Identifier (OID) | An identifier mechanism standardized by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) for naming any object, concept, or "thing" with a globally unambiguous persistent name. |
| ONE ID | An identity for access management. It provides and manages digital credentials for clinicians, brokers a federated identity platform enabling providers to leverage existing credentials, and implements a province-wide single sign on solution for the provincial digital health record. It also delivers a number of additional capabilities (e.g. authorization, risk-based authentication). |
| Ontario Health (OH) | An agency created by the Government of Ontario to connect, coordinate and modernize the province’s health care system byworking with partners, providers and patients to make the health system more efficient so everyone in Ontario has an opportunity for better health and wellbeing. |
| Ontario Regulation 329/04 made under PHIPA (O. Reg. 329/04) | A legislation which outlines general guidelines concerning health information custodianship, the responsibilities of eHealth Ontario relating to health information, and allowable use of the health number. |
| Occupational Therapy (OT) | A type of health care that helps to solve the problems that interfere with a person’s ability to do the things that are important to them – everyday things like: Self-care - getting dressed, eating, moving around the house, Being productive - going to work or school, participating in the community, and Leisure activities - sports, gardening, social activities. |
| OTNhub | The OTNhub is a secure web-based platform owned and operated by Ontario Health. It provides healthcare practitioners with an integrated suite of virtual care services to communicate with patients and connect with specialists across Ontario. |
| Personal Health Information (PHI) | Has the meaning set out in section 4 of PHIPA. Specifically, it is “identifying information” about an individual that: • Relates to the physical or mental health of the individual; • Relates to the provision of health care to the individual; • Is a plan of service under the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994; • Relates to payments or eligibility for health care or eligibility for coverage for health care; • Relates to the donation of any body part or bodily substance of the individual or that is derived from the testing or examination of any such body part or bodily substance; • Is the individual’s health number; and/or • Identifies an individual’s substitute decision-maker. PHI also includes identifying information about an individual that is not PHI listed above but that is contained in a record that includes PHI listed above. Information is “identifying” when it identifies an individual or when it is reasonably foreseeable in the circumstances that it could be utilized, either alone or with other information, to identify the individual." |
| Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) | The Ontario health privacy law. It establishes rules for the management of Personal Health Information and the protection of the confidentiality of that information, while facilitating the effective delivery of healthcare services. References to PHIPA include the regulation made thereunder (O. Reg. 329/04), as may be amended or replaced from time to time. |
| Personal Information (PI) | Information about an identifiable individual, such as name, address, telephone number, but does not include this information for an employee of an organization. |
| Point of Service (PoS) | A software application used by health information custodians for viewing or managing personal health information (PHI). Common PoS systems include, but are not limited to, provincial clinical viewers, health information system (HIS) and primary care electronic medical records (EMRs). |
| Prescribed Organization (PO) | The organization prescribed in Ontario Regulation 329/04 as the organization for the purposes of Part V.1 of PHIPA. The Prescribed Organization has the power and the duty to develop and maintain the EHR in accordance with Part V.1 of PHIPA and the regulations made thereunder |
| Provincial Care Coordination Gateway (PCCG) | A digital asset owned/operated by Ontario Health that acts as the central hub in a "hub-and-spoke" model for routing eReferrals, supporting full workflow, and providing real-time analytics. |
| Primary Care Provider (PCP) | Person or organization providing health care or other health-related services and acting as a principal point of contact/ consultation for patients within a health care system. |
| Provincial Client Registry (PCR) | The definitive source for a health care client’s identity, facilitating the unique, accurate and reliable identification of individual clients and others who receive care in Ontario, across the disciplines in the health care sector. It contains demographic and identification cross-reference data for health care clients registered in one or more patient identifier domains for which eHealth Ontario, as a result of policy/program/IT decisions, has established a data sharing agreement with the respective organizations. The PCR is fed by multiple data sources, including the Ministry of Health Registered Persons Data Base, hospital sites tracking admissions, discharges, and transfers, and other systems that participate in health care services. |
| Provincial Provider Registry (PPR) | The authoritative source of information for health profession data and health care service delivery locations for use by digital health record solutions. It facilitates the unique and accurate identification of regulated provider persons and organizations that provide health services in Ontario, or who participate in the collection, use, or disclosure of personal health information across the continuum of care. The PPR contains authoritative information about regulated health professionals and organizations in Ontario that fall within the definition of health information custodian pursuant to the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA). The PPR is currently fed by regulatory colleges, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care databases, hospitals, and other organizations, and is managed by Ontario Health. |
| Provincial Service Directory (PSD) | An application that maintains telemedicine specific practice information for providers and programs including service provided, catchment area, protocols, accepting patients, service location, and wait times. Also contains location (sites) and video end points (systems) used for telemedicine. |
| Publish/subscribe (Pub/Sub) | Publish/Subscribe is a messaging pattern where senders of messages, called publishers, do not program the messages to be sent directly to specific receivers, called subscribers, but instead categorize published messages into classes without knowledge of which subscribers, if any, there may be. Similarly, subscribers express interest in one or more classes and only receive messages that are of interest, without knowledge of which publishers. |
| Referral Management System (RMS) | Referral Management System: an electronic referral system that mediates the referral process on behalf of the Referral source and referral target, e.g., send referral, receive referral, update referrals. It also assists in managing information of referrals for all the healthcare services that it provides. |
| Referral Management System Source (RMS-S) | The Referral Management System acting as the originator of the referral. |
| Referral Management System Target (RMS-T) | The Referral Management System acting as the recipient of the referral. |
| Regulated Healthcare Provider (RHP) | A health profession in Ontario governed under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA) and health profession Acts (i.e., Medicine Act, 1991). This legislative framework establishes health regulatory colleges, which regulate the professions in the public interest. |
| Representational State Transfer (REST) | A style of software architecture for distributed systems such as the World Wide Web. It facilitates the transaction between web servers by allowing loose coupling between different services and does not require Extensible Markup Language (XML) parsing and message header to and from a service provider. |
| Request for Information (RFI) | A standard business process, the purpose of which is to collect written information about the capabilities of various suppliers. Normally it follows a format that can be used for comparative purposes. |
| Ontario Registered Persons Database (RPDB) | A database that contain records for all individuals registered to receive health services in Ontario, respectively. Each registrant is assigned a unique Health Insurance Number (HIN). |
| Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) | A standard format that is used in federated systems for the purpose of exchanging authentication and authorization data. It was developed to address the issue of how to achieve cross-domain ‘single sign-on’. It is an Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based open standard that is a product of the OASIS Security Technical Committee. It defines a ‘protocol’ or framework for requesting and obtaining identity assertions. |
| Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) | The sequence of characters that identifies a logical or physical resource. Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is an example of a type of URI. |
| Transaction History Registry (THOR) | A central storage to keep province-wide transactional logs. |