Does CIHI have pan-Canadian standards for gender, sex and sexual orientation?

(Music playing in the background.)

(Text appears on the screen announcing that this is an Ask an Expert video and provides the name of the speaker and their job title: Shannon O’Connor, Manager, Data Standards.) 

(A question appears on the screen: “Does CIHI have pan-Canadian standards for gender, sex and sexual orientation?”)

(Muffled, indistinct conversations in the background. Music stops.)

Shannon: We are establishing pan-Canadian gender, sex and sexual orientation data standards, leveraging some terrific work that has been done by our partners at the British Columbia Ministry of Health.

So, the B.C. team did a really great job. They’ve established what they call their gender, sex and sexual orientation health information standard. And then we did a comprehensive environmental scan earlier this year to sort of figure out what else the other provinces and territories were collecting. So, we discovered some major gaps in a real need for pan-Canadian standards. So, we’re just in the process right now of adopting the B.C. standard and doing the work that we can to make it pan-Canadian… so, engaging with the other provinces and territories, engaging with individuals with lived experience, as well as with clinicians and Indigenous… Indigenous individuals and communities. 

I think this work will have a tremendous effect on Canadians. We know that we’re filling a pretty significant gap. So, there’s currently no standardized way of collecting this information across the country. And we also know that transgender and nonbinary individuals have really specific experiences within the health care system and that this can have negative impacts on them. 

So, these standards will fill a really significant gap. And they’ll also ensure that the data is collected in a standardized and consistent way across the country, ensuring a safe and equitable health care system for all Canadians. 

(Music starts.)

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(The video ends.)

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