Our committees and task forces connect our members with future partners.

Develops research and position papers that support industry partners as they make their case to various levels of government. Procurement issues are often front and center in committee work.

Co-Chairs: Aaron Berk (KPMG) and Peter Jones (Microsoft Canada)

Mandate:

To promote investment in health ICT and represent the interests of the Canadian health ICT industry to government, key decision makers and opinion leaders.

• Execute on specific advocacy activities to promote the interest of the broader membership aligned to the priorities identified in the strategic plan.
• Meet one-on-one with Ministers of Health (Federal and Provincial) to promote investment in health ICT.
• Support the provincial Ministers of Health through collaboration and information sharing with other Ministers, government officials, decision-makers and opinion leaders to promote Technation Health’s priorities.
• Open up channels for dialogue between senior public servants, decision-makers in the broader health sector (e.g. regional CEO’s and CIO’s), opinion leaders (e.g. medical and hospital associations), and the Health ICT industry
• Organize opportunities for the membership to engage directly with key decision makers and politicians (e.g. Queen’s Park Days, Provincial eHealth Briefings etc.)

Objectives:

• Effectively influence public policy:
  • Deliver ‘Queen’s Park Day’ style events in BC, AB and ON – others
  • Target advocacy work on advancing the adoption of TECHNATION Health’s priority innovative technologies:
    1. Virtual Care
    2. Cloud Computing
    3. Advanced Analytics/AI/ML
    4. Consumer Health
    5. IOT/Mobility
  • Create TECHNATION Health positions on each of the five areas. Positions could over areas such as: patient/provider/system benefits, ROI, facts/myths, practical steps, blockers, recommendations etc.
  • Identify policy blockers and barriers and address at political and senior decision-making levels.

• Improve public & private sector procurement:
  • Continued work of the Procurement Task Force to collaborate with the Public Sector to seek methods of procurement innovation.
  • Develop TECHNATION Health positions on large-scale EMR refresh strategies and procurement – having a large scale view point
  • Collaboration with Advocacy committee to elevate the procurement conversation to political layers.

Measurement:

• Identify influence plan (metric: documented strategy)
• Execute on stated influence activity (metrics: # of sr.-level meetings, completion of “Queen’s Park Days”)
• Creation of position papers (metrics: # of papers)
• Influence outcomes – when possible to report on the how the activities of the committee actually moved the needle on policy decisions

TECHNATION Health Advocacy Themes

Develops relevant educational programming and partnership events to address emerging issues in digital medicine and health by bringing together members and potential partners.

Chair: TBC

Mandate:

To promote the adoption of internationally accepted standards for technology, nomenclature, data, and interoperability in health sector. To ensure the membership’s interests are being represented in key areas related to standards and emerging Provincial and Federal regulation.

• To present a unified industry voice and consultation vehicle for government, associations and policy makers and standard setting bodies.
• To assist the vendor community to become more knowledgeable about standards and interoperability issues and solutions and to share this knowledge and expertise.
• Develop skills and knowledge exchange amongst the members and the wider informatics community.
• To formulate positions on issues that may arise with respect to standards and regulations, and undertake work to establish how best to address and resolve these issues.
• To promote and facilitate the establishment of national functionality standards, conformance testing and certification processes, including privacy and security issues, so as to facilitate a “level playing field” for all vendors predicated on quality assurance for the marketplace.
• To ensure the development of secure electronic sharing of patient information (with appropriate patient and physician consent) between vendor systems through the use of Canadian and international interoperability standards.
• To help members adopt internationally accepted standards to allow Canadian companies to sell abroad.

Objectives:

• Shape provincial & federal ICT standards/regulation:
  • ISC to follow through on national survey recommendations to advance TECHNATION’s position on Canadian Interoperability Standards.
  • Grow the relevance of ISC through additional members and partnerships with other standards bodies.
  • Other areas to target include: consumer health, certification, patient safety, credentialing initiatives, devices, personalized medicine etc.

Measurement:

• Identify ISC priorities and plan (metric: documented strategy)
• Execute on stated activity (metrics: # of events)
• Creation of position papers (metrics: # of papers)
• ISC outcomes – when possible to report on the how the activities of the committee actually moved the needle on standards and regulatory decisions

Task Forces and Special Interest Groups:

• TECHNATION Health (ISC) – Interoperability Standards Recommendations Task Force –Terms of Reference

The mandate of this task force to promote the adoption of internationally accepted standards for technology, nomenclature, data, and interoperability in the health sector; and to ensure our membership’s interests are being represented in key areas related to standards and emerging Provincial and Federal regulation.

Co-Chairs: Robyn Fulkerson (Tectonic Advisory Services) & Catherine Hunter (Ernst & Young LLP)

Mandate:

To ensure the association provides increasing value to members by facilitating the involvement of TECHNATION Health members as vital stakeholders in the move to digital health care in Canada. Maintain and grow the membership to achieve financial sustainability and generate revenues to support membership-driven priorities.

1. Grow the membership, by continuously adding membership value and providing valuable communication to Canada’s vendor community
2. To provide TECHNATION Health members with information about and/or providing valuable opportunities for domestic and international business development
3. Provide TECHNATION Health with contacts, suggestions and ideas for actively engaging members as key stakeholders and vital contributors in Canada and Internationally.
4. Ensure that TECHNATION Health provides increasing value to members and is recognized as “the leading voice of the healthcare vendors in Canada” or “the national coalition of healthcare vendors in Canada
5. Create programs (networking events, seminars, webinars, briefings etc.) that add value to the existing membership, and to new target member communities (i.e. start-ups).

2017-2018 Objectives:

Maximize market development opportunities:

• Develop and execute on a strategy to attract “start-up” community as TECHNATION Health members.
• Establish partnerships and programs with key “accelerators” and innovation groups across Canada (MARs, Mohawk etc.)
• Representation and promotion at key national and international events that will create demonstrable opportunities for Canadian companies (Trade Commissions, National and International Health IT events)

Increase the adoption of new & innovative ICT solutions:

• Creation of the Innovation and Emerging Technologies Task Force to drive a focused agenda. The goal of the task force is to target key innovative solutions, build TECHNATION Health positions and remove critical blockers to adoption.
• Build awareness by delivering educational seminars, webinars, roundtables targeting members and the broader Health and Public Sectors on the following innovative technologies:
  1. Virtual Care
  2. Cloud Computing
  3. Advanced Analytics/AI/ML
  4. Consumer Health
  5. IOT/Mobility

Build value-added partnerships:

• Target key partnerships that will support TECHNATION’s objectives in the market. Execute on meaningful partnership agreements that advance our membership interests.
• Currently identified targets include: COACH/CHIEF, MEDEC?

Grow our membership and grow revenues:

• Expand into start-up community and adjacent markets (devices, genomics, etc.) Develop specific membership–drive campaigns to attract new members
• Deliver more revenue generating (profitable) events

Measurement:

• Maintain existing membership base (metrics: # of members)
• Membership satisfaction (metrics: survey results)
• Attract new members (metrics: # of new members)
• Maintain and grow revenues through membership-drives and programs (metrics: revenue growth YoY)
• Execution of value added programs (metrics: # of events, # of attendees, profitability)

Task Forces and Special Interest Groups:

• Procurement Task Force – Terms of Reference

The mandate of this task force is to continually streamline the procurement process of healthcare technology related goods and services in Canada. Healthcare technology encompasses all hardware, devices and software that manage information related to health and wellness.