Connected Care

Creating a Connected Care Health System 

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A connected care health system seamlessly links all points of care. Patient information travels quickly and securely between family doctors, specialists, hospitals, care homes, clinics, and across provinces and territories. It also enables direct communication between doctors and patients.

Interoperability modernizes how health information is accessed and shared, fostering seamless collaboration and enhancing patient-centered care. Care teams can respond faster and intervene sooner, improving health outcomes.

With a connected care approach, we can build a more efficient, responsive health care system that delivers high-quality care.

Delivering Multiple Benefits

Time Savings

  • Improved productivity for clinicians builds health system capacity and reduces wait times.
  • 5.6 million hours of patient time saved by accessing a comprehensive health record.
  • 4.6 million hours in clinician time saved by widespread use of the patient summary.

Travel & Emissions Avoided

  • Reducing unnecessary travel lowers expenses for patients and benefits the environment.
  • 42 million kilometers of patient travel and 11,000 metric tons of CO2 avoided by enabling access to comprehensive health records.

Addressing Current Healthcare Challenges

Provider Burnout

  • 44% of surveyed Canadian physicians report experiencing some level of burnout, citing inefficient digital systems as a contributing factor (Canada Health Infoway, 2024 National Survey of Canadian Physicians).

Patient Access & Experience

  • Limited access to and control over personal health information hinders patients’ ability to actively participate in their care and make informed decisions.
  • Patients often face the frustration of repeatedly providing medical histories.

Inefficient and Costly Care

  • Poorly organized data, siloed systems, and manual workflows contribute to increased healthcare costs.
  • These inefficiencies drive up wait-times and lead to the inappropriate use of healthcare resources.

Disconnected Care

  • Ineffective clinical communication tools and limited interoperability reduce the ability of providers within the circle of care to deliver multi-disciplinary services efficiently.

Limitations on Patient Safety

  • Dispersed and inaccessible patient data, along with missing information, impacts clinical decision-making for testing, medications, diagnoses, and more.

    Outdated and insecure methods of provider-to-provider communication, such as fax machines, pose additional risks.

Limited Secondary Decision-Making

  • Segmented, poor-quality data stored in multiple repositories restricts the ability to efficiently analyze population health data.
  • This limits the capacity to make evidence-based decisions to support health system planning and influence policy.

Inspiring a Pathway to Nationwide Connected Care

Over the past two decades, the digitization of health information has transformed how people in Canada experience the health system. This shift has created new opportunities to improve the delivery of care and empower patients.

Looking ahead, we must continue modernizing our health system with the vision of connected care to enable a healthier Canada. This means linking all care sectors, organizations, and providers through health technology and standardized data.

At Infoway, we’re collaborating with Health Canada, provinces and territories, vendors, and other partners and interest holders on a multi-stage approach to realize Canada’s national priorities, as outlined in the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap.

The Roadmap aligns with and complements provincial and territorial roadmaps by providing common data, technical, and policy standards to achieve seamless interoperability.

The Roadmap
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Strategic Goals and Objectives

Providing the Building Blocks to True Interoperability

To advance pan-Canadian interoperability, a subset of building blocks has been identified to support near-term initiatives. These building blocks are grounded in three core frameworks designed to enable the desired functionalities across the health system:

Establishes a shared, patient-focused data foundation that aligns with international standards. This framework supports a single, extensible approach that includes:

  • A referenceable data model.
  • Semantic data component guidance.
  • Minimal mandatory data assets.
  • Clinical guidance for effective implementation.
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The Necessary Policy

National legislation is critical to ensure data unblocking and access while supporting the goals of connected care in Canada. A national coordinating entity is required to define and oversee the implementation and compliance of prescribed standards.

Health information technology is considered interoperable if it:

  • Enables users to easily, securely, and fully access and use electronic health information.
  • Facilitates the seamless exchange of electronic health information with other health information technologies.
  • Meets the standards, specifications, or requirements outlined in the regulations.