Improving patient safety and access to their health information

June 6, 2024 | Ottawa, Ontario | Health Canada

The Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, today introduced Bill C-72. Canada’s Connected Health Act. The goal of this act is to provide Canadians with secure access to their own health data, which will facilitate patient decision-making and improve the care they receive from health care providers in Canada. This act describes Canada’s plan to build a modern, connected health care system where patients can securely access health information and share it between providers as needed.

Fast and secure access to personal health information is critical to saving lives and improving healthcare for Canadians. Every Canadian and their health care providers should be able to access their health information easily, securely and digitally. However, currently, less than 40% of Canadians report having access to some of their health information and only 35% of family physicians in Canada can share information about their patients outside of their practice.

Delays in accessing personal health information harm patients: They can lead to unnecessary or redundant tests, longer wait times and hospital stays, and medication errors. When healthcare providers and patients have access to health information, readmission rates decrease, diagnoses become more accurate, quality of care improves, and deaths decrease. Interconnectivity relieves the burden on patients, families, and caregivers who must frequently recall and repeat their medical history. It also reduces the stress on healthcare providers who must make decisions without access to all patient information.

Canadians should feel safe knowing that their medical records are protected for their own use and that of their health care providers. The bill would require all IT companies providing digital health services in Canada to adopt common standards and enable the sharing of protected and secure information between different systems.

Federal, provincial and territorial governments are working together to implement a joint pan-Canadian interoperability roadmap that lays out a path to connecting care through common interoperability and data standards. The bill aims to accelerate the adoption of these standards and enable secure information sharing between platforms. However, it would only apply to provinces and territories that have not implemented similar legislation.

The Government of Canada remains committed to working with its provincial and territorial partners to develop regulations to ensure the protection and secure sharing of health data for Canadians and improve outcomes for patients, while ensuring compliance with existing strong privacy laws.