Please note these FAQs will be updated as questions arise or new information becomes available. Please check back for the latest version. This content is for informational purposes only.
Information applies to all jurisdictions, excluding Quebec.
Key Facts
- Following extensive collaboration and a comprehensive review of sustainability options, the pathway forward for ePrescribing in Canada is to move to a publicly available national ePrescribing standard.
- As part of this evolution, the PrescribeIT® operated service will conclude on May 29, 2026, at 11:59 PM EST.
- On or before May 1, 2026, the national ePrescribing standard will be made publicly available.
- From May 30, 2026, onward, the national ePrescribing standard will continue to be maintained by Infoway.
- Infoway will provide targeted support to active jurisdictions, vendors and users throughout the transition period to coordinate a smooth and orderly conclusion of the PrescribeIT® service.
- Infoway will be convening a national ePrescribing working group to support the next phase of the ePrescribing standard. Infoway is actively looking for input from partners across the country to participate in shaping how the standard evolves. More information will be provided when available.
General Questions
Why is PrescribeIT® transitioning to a national open standard model?
Over the past several years, in collaboration with federal, provincial and territorial governments, the private sector, and other health system partners, Infoway conducted a comprehensive review of sustainability pathways for PrescribeIT®. In the absence of sustained public funding at current levels, a federal–provincial–territorial cost-sharing model, and broader system levers, no viable model emerged to support the continued operation of a single, centrally managed national service.
As a result, transitioning to a national open standard model represents the most viable and responsible path forward, preserving the value of work completed to date while enabling jurisdictions and vendors to advance ePrescribing in line with their priorities and readiness.
As part of this evolution, the PrescribeIT® operated service will conclude on May 29, 2026, at 11:59 PM EST. On or before May 1, 2026, the national ePrescribing standard will be made publicly available, and from May 30, 2026, onward, the national ePrescribing standard will continue to be maintained by Infoway.
What is a national open standard model?
A national open standard model for ePrescribing in Canada refers to a shared, pan-Canadian set of technical, clinical, and security requirements that define how prescription information is created, structured, exchanged, and understood electronically across health systems. Maintained by Infoway, in partnership with provinces, territories, vendors, and other health system partners, the standard provides a common foundation that enables different electronic medical record systems, pharmacy systems, and digital health solutions to exchange prescription information in a consistent, secure, and interoperable way, regardless of vendor or setting.
The national ePrescribing standard will be publicly available to jurisdictions and vendors across Canada on or before May 1, 2026, enabling them to continue advancing ePrescribing in ways that align with local priorities, readiness, and implementation approaches.
What support will be provided by Infoway?
Infoway will provide targeted support to active jurisdictions, vendors and users throughout the transition period and will maintain transparent communication with stakeholders and partners, including sharing best practices, reusable assets, and lessons learned as we conclude the PrescribeIT® service.
The PrescribeIT® service will remain operational until May 29, 2026, at 11:59 PM EST, although vendors do have the option to terminate their service earlier than this date if they so choose.
Will PrescribeIT® be replaced with an alternative service?
As of May 29, 2026, at 11:59 PM EST, the PrescribeIT® operated service will conclude and Infoway will no longer operate an ePrescribing service.
The national ePrescribing standard will be publicly available to jurisdictions and vendors across Canada on or before May 1, 2026, enabling them to continue advancing ePrescribing in ways that align with local priorities, readiness, and implementation approaches.
What happens once the PrescribeIT® service concludes?
On or before May 1, 2026, the national ePrescribing standard will be made publicly available, and from May 30, 2026, onward, the national ePrescribing standard will continue to be maintained by Infoway, similar to other national health data exchange standards such as eReferral/eConsult, Patient Summary, and HALO.
The transition to an open standard model represents a natural evolution that enables jurisdictions and vendors to advance ePrescribing on their own timelines and in line with their own priorities, supported by the capabilities and readiness established through PrescribeIT®.
Provinces and territories will have the flexibility to partner with vendors of their choice, pursue custom solutions, or integrate ePrescribing into broader digital health strategies.
What is the deactivation process?
As an ongoing process, individual prescribers and pharmacies may notify their EMR/PMS to be deactivated from PrescribeIT®. First, vendor deactivations are completed locally at the clinic/pharmacy, resulting in the inability for that prescriber or pharmacy to send/receive electronic prescriptions, notifications or clinical communications going forward. Upon local deactivation, EMR/PMS vendors will communicate the deactivation request to Infoway (
For larger pharmacy retailers and clinics/hospitals, the deactivation process will be coordinated with the vendors to ensure deactivation occurs after hours or seamlessly through advanced system configuration changes. This would result in minimal error messages to end users.
How will the national ePrescribing standard be developed?
The development and release of the national ePrescribing standard will align with established standards development processes and best practices, ensuring transparency, governance, and consistency with other national health data exchange standards.
Infoway will follow an approach to allow us to deliver the core ePrescribing standard to the market as soon as possible, with a fulsome process that is aligned to our standards development protocol for governance, stakeholder engagement and release management, including balloting. We will build out the future core functionality that will include required or desired functionality across the country, based on important feedback and direction from our stakeholders including jurisdictions, clinicians, vendors, patients, and clinical colleges and associations.
How do I get involved in the next phase of ePrescribing in Canada?
Infoway will be convening a national ePrescribing working group to support the next phase of the ePrescribing standard. Infoway is actively looking for input from partners across the country to participate in shaping how the standard evolves. More information will be provided when available.
Is the decision to transition PrescribeIT® to an open standard model final?
We appreciate your support and interest in PrescribeIT®. Infoway no longer has the funding or the mandate to operate an ePrescribing service. The decision to transition digital prescribing to a national open standard model is now final.
Questions Related to Doctors & Nurse Practitioners
What does the wind down of PrescribeIT® mean for Doctors and Nurse Practitioners?
The PrescribeIT® service will remain available and supported by Infoway through May 29, 2026, but pharmacies and vendors may determine their own timelines for service changes in advance of May 29, 2026, and may elect to deactivate sooner. Any changes to service availability would be communicated directly by the relevant vendor or organization.
Can Doctors and Nurse Practitioners deactivate their PrescribeIT® service before May 29, 2026?
Yes, Doctors and Nurse Practitioners have the option to deactivate their service in advance of May 29, 2026. If interested, please contact your EMR vendor directly to do so.
Will pharmacies and vendors be deactivating their PrescribeIT® service before May 29, 2026?
Pharmacies and vendors may determine their own timelines for service changes in advance of May 29, 2026. Any changes to service availability would be communicated directly by the relevant vendor or organization.
What happens to prescriptions, renewal requests, and pharmacy messages that are in progress at the time of deactivation?
Items that have been successfully transmitted and received through PrescribeIT® prior to the service conclusion will not be affected.
Messages that occur after the original prescription is sent, such as renewal requests, cancellations, or pharmacy messages, will be affected if they take place after the service concludes or before, if your EMR vendor has elected to deactivate sooner. Transactions that are not completed before that time may not proceed through the PrescribeIT® channel.
What happens to patient data in the EMR?
Prescription information generated through your EMR system is maintained within your EMR environment in accordance with your system’s data management practices. Users should continue to have access to their locally stored records through their EMR.
ALBERTA: How does the conclusion of PrescribeIT impact the Tracked Prescription Program?
Please refer to information from TPP Alberta here, and contact the TPP Alberta team at
Who can Doctors and Nurse Practitioners call for help?
For technical questions related to your EMR, please contact your vendor or system provider directly.
Questions Related to Vendors
What does the wind down of PrescribeIT® mean for Vendors?
Vendors will continue to be supported as we conclude the PrescribeIT® service. The release of the national ePrescribing standard under a national open standard model will enable vendors to continue advancing ePrescribing in ways that align with local priorities, readiness, and implementation approaches.
Can Vendors deactivate their PrescribeIT® service before May 29, 2026?
Pharmacies and vendors may determine their own timelines for service changes in advance of May 29, 2026.
If a vendor elects to conclude participation prior to the service termination date, Infoway should be notified to support coordinated communication with affected jurisdictions and users, as appropriate. Established deactivation processes, as outlined in onboarding documentation, should be followed to help ensure a smooth transition and minimize system notifications or service interruption messages for users.
Will EMR/PMS end users see any unexpected error messages in advance of the PrescribeIT® service concluding, especially as sites deactivate?
If a prescriber sends a prescription to a pharmacy that has chosen to deactivate their PrescribeIT® service early, they will get an error message. If a doctor or nurse practitioner has not recently updated their EMR address book to reflect the current contacts, it may receive error messages about inactive sites (e.g., 999 messages or synchronous errors).
Can Vendors test the PrescribeIT® service deactivation process?
Yes, the pre-conformance environment will be available to Vendors until May 29, 2026.
Can Vendors test the application's behaviour post- PrescribeIT® service termination?
Vendors may conduct testing within their own environments to simulate how their systems respond when the PrescribeIT® service is concluded. For example, Vendors may change their current URL to something other than the correct URL to mimic the system being down.
Any such testing should be undertaken in accordance with the vendor’s internal processes and technical controls.
Can the existing PrescribeIT® standard be used between Vendors that already have it implemented?
While a portion of the standard used for PrescribeIT® is Infoway’s intellectual property, the standard used for the transmission hub is proprietary to TELUS. Instead, Vendors should adopt and implement the national ePrescribing standard when it is released.
Once the new national ePrescribing standard is published, can it be adopted immediately?
As Infoway publishes the national ePrescribing specification, it will make clear if each iteration is a draft for review or the final specification. The final specification is targeted for release on or before May 1, 2026.
What will conformance look like after the transition to a national ePrescribing standard?
Infoway’s Pan-Canadian Conformance Program is designed to ensure digital health solutions align with national and international interoperability standards. This service includes vendor professional services, conformance services, certification and governance services, and end-user services, and will now be expanded to include the national ePrescribing standard. More information will be provided when available.
Will there be funding for implementing the new national ePrescribing standard?
Infoway’s Vendor Innovation Program is designed to support innovative solutions that tackle key challenges in digital health transformation. The program will be expanded to include projects focused on the national ePrescribing standard and will provide investment opportunities for projects that focus on practical, real-world applications aimed at improving data exchange, workflow efficiency, and patient outcomes. More information will be provided when available.
What will happen to any open contracts that Vendors have with Infoway?
Please contact the Partner Management team at Infoway to discuss specifics related to your contract.
Questions Related to Pharmacies
What does the wind down of PrescribeIT® mean for Pharmacies?
The PrescribeIT® service will remain available and supported by Infoway through May 29, 2026. The conclusion of the PrescribeIT® service is being managed carefully while allowing time to plan next steps. Pharmacies will be contacted directly with additional information and next steps as they become available.
Can Pharmacies deactivate their PrescribeIT® service before May 29, 2026?
Pharmacies and vendors may determine their own timelines for service changes in advance of May 29, 2026.
If a pharmacy or vendor elects to conclude participation prior to the service termination date, Infoway should be notified to support coordinated communication with affected jurisdictions and users, as appropriate. Established deactivation processes, as outlined in onboarding documentation, should be followed to help ensure a smooth transition and minimize system notifications or service interruption messages for users.
What happens to billing and invoicing for PrescribeIT® transactions?
Billable PrescribeIT® transactions completed on or prior to May 29, 2026, will continue to be subject to applicable charges. The billing and invoicing portal will remain available for a defined period following service conclusion to allow end users to view and pay invoices related to transactions completed up to that date.
If you have billing/invoicing questions about your account, please contact us at
Will the PrescribeIT® deactivation affect pharmacy-facing functionality?
Please contact your pharmacy system vendor about any changes in functionality.
What happens to prescriptions, renewal requests, and pharmacy messages that are in progress when Pharmacies deactivate?
Items that have been successfully transmitted and received through PrescribeIT® prior to the service conclusion will not be affected.
Messages that occur after the original prescription is sent, such as renewal requests, cancellations, or pharmacy messages, will be affected if they take place after the service concludes or before, if you or your vendor have elected to deactivate your PrescribeIT® service sooner. Transactions that are not completed before that time may not proceed through the PrescribeIT® channel.
Who can Pharmacies call for help?
For technical questions related to your ePrescribing system, please contact your pharmacy system vendor or system provider directly.