The Path to
Connected Care
Where patient information can travel quickly and securely...
Where information can travel across provinces...
Imagine a health care system where...
patients can walk into any clinic and have access to their full medical history…
Where patients living with multiple chronic conditions have a health care team sharing treatment information in real-time…
And where providers aren’t overburdened with administrative tasks and instead focused on delivering the quality of care all Canadians deserve.
That system is possible. It can exist today.
And it starts with Interoperability.
Interoperability is the ability for different digital healthcare information systems across provinces, territories and care settings to “speak the same language” and have information to flow seamlessly between different solutions and devices. It will:
Allow patients to access their electronic health records from secure platforms
Enable health care providers across all settings to exchange patients’ health information electronically and securely
This is what it means to have Connected Care. Ensuring seamless collaboration, enhancing patient-centered care, and contributing to a more efficient and responsive healthcare system for all Canadians. It sounds pretty simple. But it's not.
To have a truly connected system that puts patients first, we need:
Patient information that is accessible to authorized care providers (ie. hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, etc.)
Use of common language, based on universally accepted pan-Canadian terminology and standards, by health care providers to share information on patient care plans and treatments that consider differences in clinical workflows across provinces, territories, and facilities
An organization to regulate and standardize health information as it evolves
Work is already underway to bring this vision to life, and while there is still much to be done... it's worth it. The benefit for patients of a truly connected system are numerous…
Connected Care will modernize how health information is securely accessed by patients and their care teams to treat faster, intervene sooner, and sustain our workforce for longer.
01. Improved Access to, and Quality of, Care
Reduce the time to, and between, diagnosis and treatment for patients by ensuring care providers can follow their treatment journey through various care settings and stages of care.
Improve patient outcomes and experience through collaborative and inclusive communication across teams as well as better patient adherence to courses of treatment through access to personal health and medication records.
Enable patients to seek out treatment when and where they need it by ensuring care teams across settings and locations have access to complete and universally-understood patient records.
84% of patients have said they can better manage their health when they’ve had access to their personal health information.
92% of clinicians agree…that improved Connected Care would enable safer patient care by having more complete, timely and accurate information at their disposal.
02. Prevent Burnout of Human Health Resources
One of the leading factors of burnout comes from the administrative burden placed on health care providers using siloed, antiquated or incompatible systems.
Connected Care can help reduce the administrative burden placed on health care providers by ensuring health information and patient care records are up-to-date, easily understood and transmitted seamlessly online.
This ensures our health care providers are doing what they do best: providing quality care to patients.
03. Cost Savings
Connected Care also has the potential to achieve significant cost savings for our health care system.
These savings will benefit patients by allowing provinces to focus funding on programs that impact care instead of antiquated administration tools.
$694M in potential savings from patients accessing a comprehensive health record.
$950M in potential savings to the health system through widespread use of the patient summary.
5.6M hours of potential patient time saved...and a collective 2.3M hours of potential clinician time saved through patients accessing a comprehensive health record and widespread use of the patient summary.
OK. So. Interoperability is Good. But...
On February 7, 2023, the Government of Canada announced an investment of $196.1 billion over 10 years, including $46.2 billion in new funding for provinces and territories to improve health care services for Canadians.
This funding and meaningful collaboration with jurisdictions and health care partners across our system have informed the four strategic priorities that will enable Connected Care:
Reducing Data Blocking and Easing Portability
Improving Provider Access to Patient Data at Point-of-Care
Enabling Patient Access to their Health Record
Improving Care Coordination and Collaboration
…And Canada Health Infoway, in partnership with the Government of Canada, the provinces and territories, and Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has developed the pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap to get us there. It outlines the importance of:
A primary care data set that aims to standardize the classes and designations of patient information inputs to ensure patient data can be easily transmitted across care settings
The Pan-Canadian Patient Summary that would lean on the primary care data set and be available to all care providers to ease portability of patient and treatment information
Improved patient access to their personal health information and records
Electronic eReferral and eConsult solutions that streamline the process for patients to access care and providers to collaborate with their peers
Each of these initiatives are being developed in collaboration with health care partners from across the system, considering and being tested against existing clinical workflows to identify and remove roadblocks before they will be progressively scaled towards national adoption.
And once there, Connected Care will:
Empower patients by giving them access to their health records
Make it easier for patients to receive the care they need, when and where they need it
Help reduce clinician burnout and health services backlogs
Enable us to make more proactive decisions
Reinforce the trust between Canadians and their health care system
To learn more about interoperability, download the Share Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap today.