CIHI’s data standards have a positive impact on health care data. They are used in each of CIHI’s data holdings, enhancing the consistency and accuracy of health care information in Canada. Working with our stakeholders, we take a lead role in developing and implementing national standards.
CIHI is dedicated to developing and implementing accurate national standards for Canadian health care information, and to evolving our approach as needed in response to health system needs.
Data standards library
This list provides access to resources related to CIHI’s data standards on topics ranging from acute care to health human resources.
Health data standards
At CIHI, all of our data standards are related to health and health care. Learn about the different types of standards here.
Development life cycle
CIHI’s data standards are developed, released and maintained via a 4-stage iterative process. Read about them here.
Standards are foundational to connected care
Consistent, accurate and relevant standards are a key foundation of connected care — the ability of systems and devices to exchange data and to interpret that shared data (also referred to as interoperability). For 2 systems to be interoperable, they must be able to exchange data and present that data so it can be understood by a user.
- Clinical and administrative health care data standards provide the technical framework and clinical language that enable thousands of health care providers to communicate with each other and to share health information that is contextual and unambiguous in meaning.
- These pan-Canadian standards support the safe and secure exchange of health care information across the continuum of care, as well as clinical decision support, data analytics and population health management.
There is no connected care without data standards. They are a foundational aspect of interoperability, alongside data exchange standards, data modelling and architecture.
CIHI and Canada Health Infoway are partnering to modernize the flow of health information and to create a connected health system. Together, we are supporting the movement of Canada’s health data ecosystem toward true interoperability through a pan-Canadian interoperability roadmap, which will first focus on primary health care data.
Other resource
CIHI Reference Data Model
The CIHI Reference Data Model (CRDM) is a high-level, corporate-wide data architecture standard. The goal of the CRDM is to facilitate data integration across CIHI by having common terminology and meaning. To access the CRDM Toolkit, email us:
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