The objective of CIHI’s Connected Care initiative is to put people at the centre of their care by helping health data to flow seamlessly across the health care continuum. This will be achieved by ensuring that digital health systems and health technology solutions can consistently and securely share data.
Highlights
CIHI is collaborating extensively with partners and stakeholders at all levels to make connected care a reality in Canada: persons with lived experience, clinicians and care providers, Indigenous communities, industry, researchers, provincial and territorial governments, federal departments, and pan-Canadian health organizations such as Canada Health Infoway. We are leveraging 3 decades of partnerships and knowledge to define the foundational health data for a connected health system.
What is connected care?
Connected care — also referred to as interoperability — has 2 parts:
- The secure and timely exchange of health information between systems, such as a physician’s electronic medical records or a health technology solution one might see in a hospital
- The mutual interpretation of that information so that the sender and the recipient can understand the information that was exchanged with the same meaning
When that information is shared between systems seamlessly and confidentially, health care providers and patients benefit from having access to the health information they need when they need it.
Advancing connected care in Canada
As part of the work and commitments outlined in the Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians Plan, Canada is implementing the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap. This roadmap creates a vision for modern and person-centric health care that is digitally connected and privacy-protected by design.
The roadmap sets out a 5-year plan to progress 4 strategic goals:
- Reduce data blocking and ease portability
- Improve provider access to patient data at the point of care
- Enable patient access to their health record
- Improve care coordination and collaboration
CIHI’s role in advancing the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap
CIHI and Canada Health Infoway are partnering to modernize the flow of health information and to create a connected health system. CIHI has an important role in defining and standardizing the health data that will be exchanged, which is the first building block in the roadmap. We are working with individuals and organizations across the health sector to define comprehensive, person-centric health data content that will support clinical care planning and management, program planning and resource allocation, health system measurement and pan-Canadian comparability, and population and public health. The health data content and the associated architecture that CIHI is developing is called the Pan-Canadian Health Data Content Framework.
Call for participation to validate the Pan-Canadian Health Data Content Framework
CIHI is conducting an open review of the Pan-Canadian Health Data Content Framework. We invite you to learn more about the framework, access downloadable content and share your feedback.
Pan-Canadian Health Data Content Framework
Explore the Pan-Canadian Health Data Content Framework and provide feedback.
Featured material
Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap
The Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health endorsed the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap, setting a path forward for Canada’s digital health system transformation.
Podcast: Virtual Care in Canada
Dr. Ewan Affleck, chair of the Alberta Virtual Care Coordinating Body, discusses the future of virtual care in Canada and why he is so passionate about continuing its growth.
Interoperability Saves Lives
This report by the Alberta Virtual Care Coordinating Body focuses on a patient-centred health system approach for better patient care and improved health outcomes.
Contact us
Connected care
If you have questions about connected care or would like to be added to our stakeholder notification list, please email us: