Slowing interoperability agenda

What

An ambitious Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap strategy is in its second year of a five year plan (due to be fully implemented by 2027). Hower, an eighteen-month follow up report by the Canadian Medical Association’s Interoperability Taskforce has found that actions are beginning to slow, and that key ecosystem stakeholders including healthcare providers are not sufficiently involved in activities.

Why it matters & what you need to know

Connected, interoperable data will be crucial to optimise resource use and expenditure, increase research, and enable ecosystem participation.

Connected Care legislation

What

In June 2024, Bill C-72, the Connected Care for Canadians Act was introduced. The aim of the Act is to “enable a modern, connected care system, in which health information can be securely accessed by patients and shared between providers, when needed”. The legislation and accompanying regulations require all IT companies providing digital health services in Canada to adopt common standards and allow for protected and secure information exchange across various systems. The Act also prohibits vendors from “data blocking”. The legislation still requires a second reading and needs to be passed before it can be put into effect.

Why it matters & what you need to know

While provincial level regulatory frameworks are in place, there is a lack of clarity at the national level and a national-level regulatory framework would assist in enabling safe and responsible data use and sharing.

Data content

What

A data content framework was developed as part of the Interoperability Roadmap. To date, this work focuses on Patient Information Summaries and includes reference to LOINC, HL7, ICD-10-CA and Canadian-based standards.

Why it matters & what you need to know

Patient summaries and electronic healthcare records are at the centre of enabling greater data value to be realised for all digital health goals.