Mississauga, ON (November 30, 2021) – TECHNATION, Canada’s national technology industry association, today released a new white paper on Canadian National Health Interoperability Standards that examines the progress made towards interoperability in Canada, as well as best practices. The key drivers for change include: vaccine passports, national immunization registries, national digital identifies and the creation of national formularies for pharmacare. Although there have been improvements in interoperability, many gaps still exist across health systems.
TECHNATION National Health IT Survey findings identified integrating solutions as one of the most pressing IT issues Canadian healthcare organizations are facing, along with sharing data across the continuum of care, cyber security and bandwidth to support expanding system and user utilization.
Federal and provincial governments in Canada have been working on interoperability for more than 20 years which has led to rigid and complex standards with long development lifecycles that hasn’t kept pace with the more agile and nimble needs of the industry developing solutions for clinicians. The pandemic highlighted the importance of integration and sharing of digital health data. To be successful, government and industry need to take a more collaborative approach.
“Dialogue between jurisdictional health organizations and their technology vendors on interoperability goals will yield dividends. Vendors will have the opportunity to provide feedback and in turn will be able to better refine their products,” said Susan Anderson, Senior Health Policy Advisor, TECHNATION. “In all such projects, the goal should be making practical, incremental progress and not aiming for the perfect integration model.”
Broken down into three categories, of Business, System Design/Architecture and Standards, recommendations including determining adoption models for clinicians capturing/consuming data, and developing data exchange capabilities in products, are provided in the white paper to address the complexity of the issue and to assist in the success of interoperability initiatives.
“TECHNATION’s Interoperability and Steering Committee members who developed this white paper come from a mix of solution vendors and professional service organizations, leading to broad and deep conversations on interoperability challenges and recommendations for resolving those challenges,” said Gavin Tong, Senior Manager, Accenture Canada and Chair of TECHNATION Health, Interoperability and Steering Committee.
This white paper provides a deeper understanding of the drivers for the Canadian healthcare IT industry to provide increased interoperability of healthcare data for clinicians and governments between point of care systems and provincial digital health assets which is critical to the future success and improved patient care outcomes.
Full White Paper is available here
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About TECHNATION
TECHNATION is the industry-government nexus for technology prosperity in Canada. As a member-driven, not-for-profit, TECHNATION unites Canada’s technology sector, governments and communities to enable technology prosperity in Canada. TECHNATION champions technology prosperity by providing advocacy, professional development and networking opportunities across industry and governments at all levels; connecting Canadian scale-ups with global tech leaders; engaging the global supply chain; and filling the technology talent pipeline. TECHNATION has served as the authoritative national voice of the $210 billion ICT industry for over 60 years. More than 43,200 Canadian ICT firms create and supply goods and services that contribute to a more productive, competitive, and innovative society. The ICT sector generates more than 666,500 jobs and invests $7.5 billion annually in R&D, more than any other private sector performer. For more information: www.technationcanada.ca
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