What is immigration eMedical?
Wojtek Ciszak M.D.
eMedical is the government-operated online system, designed for submitting medical reports of immigration examinations, lab reports and X-rays. This electronic system of processing immigration medicals was first introduced by the Australian government for their own immigration program. Since the Canadian immigration system is very similar to the Australian, Canada joined eMedical in 2013 and now both are operated cooperatively from a server located in Australia. New Zealand and the United States also joined later. The medical branches of the respective governments access the data and make their determinations on that basis.
All immigration applications lodged in Canada are now subject to being processed electronically. All medical reports are also submitted electronically by the examining physician. This is not the case in some other countries where forms are still filled out on paper. Reports are supposed to be submitted to IRCC within 10 days of the date of your medical examination. (This office usually does it in 2-5 days). Once your medical report is submitted it cannot be reopened and amended by the doctor. However, if needed, the government can later request additional information and may make it possible for the doctor to submit further reports, as required.
The advantage of the eMedical system is improvement in efficiency and speed of processing by the immigration medical branch. In the years past it was not uncommon for paper reports and files to be lost, causing delays and making it necessary for applicants to undergo the medical examination over again. Reports can no longer be lost in the new system.
All the involved governments appoint a limited number doctors as "Panel Physicians", licensed to perform immigration examinations. Before this system was set up, any family doctor was allowed perform these examinations and it was difficult for the government to maintain consistent standards. Your acceptance sometimes depended on which doctor you saw, and there were also instances of corruption. This is no longer the case as the governments have set extremely detailed rules and criteria for the doctors and these are strictly enforced.
All Panel Physicians in Canada now use the eMedical system. This includes all the physicians listed on the
IRCC Panel Physicians, on the Australian Panel Physicians and on the New Zealand Panel Physicians pages, from which applicants are free to choose. The US does not publish their complete list but directs applicants to a particular Panel Physician.
Applicants often ask if they can receive a copy of their eMedical report. We can create pdf file containing a summary of the data submitted to immigration. Please bear in mind that, if there were any abnormal findings, the Panel doctor would advise you of them either at the time of the examination or soon after the results of the X-ray and lab tests have been received. Nothing is reported to immigration while withholding it from you.
It may be of value to you to request a copy of your X-ray report and the CD of the X-ray image directly from the Radiology Clinic, even if it was normal, since it can later be used by your own doctor as a baseline for comparison.
