As of July 2024, an important upgrade has been completed - integrated encrypted emails. This is the ability to send encrypted emails to patients directly from the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system that we use. Previously, emails needed to be sent via a different system, and without encryption. This is a massive upgrade!

Despite being a popular shared EMR used by family doctors around the country, this freely available EMR suffers from a significant lack of investment. Physicians at Magenta Health try to do their part by voluntarily contributing $100,000 annually but this isn’t enough.

Notably, we’ve asked for financial contributions from patients towards helping improve this software since late 2023, and it’s been incredible to see patients step forward to help. This important upgrade was made possible in part through this generosity and community mindedness.

Thank you!

Why is this a big deal?

Two huge reasons.

Better privacy for patients. Previously, if your physician wanted to attach a document, they would need to download the file to their desktop, then attach it to the email within a different system. Attaching the wrong file has been the number one reason for accidental privacy breaches. This new upgrade introduces numerous “privacy by design” guardrails such as (a) only the email address on file can be emailed, manual changes can’t be made (b) documents can only be emailed to the corresponding patient, full stop.
Streamlined workflow for staff. Every click matters. Improvements like these allow physicians and staff to invest more time on active patient care, instead of tedious computer work.

What’s Next?

For the moment, this upgrade is being tested right now with encryption turned off. In the coming months, we’ll turn on encryption and messages and attachments will start arriving in encrypted form.

The source code for this upgrade has also already been shared the community at large and the goal is that physicians and clinics around the country will soon be using it as well!