In an effort to reduce medical errors and to promote workplace efficiency, IBM and the Canadian province of Alberta have signed a $10-million deal to digitize patient health records.

Over a two-year timeframe, IBM will help roll out the system and recruit, and train users including as physicians, pharmacists and other health-care providers to use the system in offices and pharmacies.

IBM already has a foothold in Alberta's health IT landscape. The province's  existing Pharmaceutical Information Network was developed by IBM. That system provides authorized health-care workers with access to a patient's prescription history. Alberta hopes to have every resident of the province on the EHR system by 2008.