What it will take to build an information pipeline across health care in Canada 

The Facts*:

• Only 40% of Canadians can access their health information digitally
• 93% of clinicians use electronic medical records
• only 35% of physicians share patient information electronically outside their own practice
• 92% say sharing electronic records would enable safer patient care
• 86% say it would reduce administrative burden.

What happens when data isn’t connected?

• Clinicians do not have easy access to the patient information that will allow them to provide safe, effective, efficient and timely care
• Treatment is sometimes uncoordinated or delayed
• Duplicate tests are being ordered, sometimes leading to wasted resources
• Clinicians have unnecessary administrative burden, draining time spent with patients
• The health system isn’t able to easily measure health system performance.

What’s happening now?

• In June 2024, the federal government introduced the Connected Care for Canadians Act which outlines Canada’s plan to enable a modern connected care system in which health information is securely accessed by patients and shared between care providers when needed.
• Canada Health Infoway has released a Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap, a blueprint developed with federal, provincial and territorial partners to achieve seamless and secure data exchange in health care.
• The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) is defining and standardizing all health information in the Pan-Canadian Health Data Content Framework, launched in September 2024, which defines how health data should be captured and stored, as well as what data should follow patients from one care setting to another.

Here are some insights into next steps from our panel:

• Have voices from all parts of the health workforce at the table for planning, design and policy discussions–doctors, nurses, home care and long-term care workers, paramedics and pharmacists as well as family care givers and patients
• Leverage tables that already exist at the federal-provincial-territorial level and make sure the right people are represented
• Get your house in order. Make sure your own networks will be ready for a connected system by ensuring consistency in your own processes in terms of standardized pathways, governance, regulation and standards.
• Use the connected system to leverage data on what health care workers do. Standardized data collection for health work could provide insights into scopes of practice, overlap, gaps and workflows that are working and not working
• Leverage AI and other technologies to collect the data that’s needed for connected care so as not to add to administrative burden
• Balance the need for patient safety and privacy with the need for information pathways. Find the mechanism to protect them both
• Make sure health workers are trained to use the tools. Consider digital operability training hubs across Canada where health professionals would get the essential digital literacy they need to navigate the new system
• Improve data literacy across all health-care providers through training so that they can take data driven decisions confidently
• Remember to build skills and knowledge around connected care systems for health workers who operate alone in rural and remote communities.

The panel was moderated by Brent Diverty, Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and panelists included:

Simon Hagens, Canada Health Infoway
Derek Cassista, Paramedics Association of New Brunswick
Jodi Hall, Canadian Association of Long-term Care
Nadine Henningsen, Canadian Health Care Agency
Suzanne Madore, the Ottawa Hospital
Ivy Oandasan, The College of Family Physicians of Canada
Linda Powell, health system advocate and community volunteer

*Source: CIHI and Commonwealth Fund data