The following is a message from the Alberta Virtual Care Coordinating Body (ACP participated as a member of the sub-committee that developed the report introduced below):
Following on its highly regarded report Interoperability Saves Lives, the Alberta Virtual Care Coordinating Body (AVCCB) is pleased to announce the release of its latest report: Data Disarray – A Root Cause Analysis of Health Data Dysfunction in Canada.
Accurate health information is vital to high-quality health programs and services. Yet the reality in Canada is that patient information is often fragmented and inaccessible to members of a patient’s care team. Data Disarray evaluates how current Canadian health data public policy impacts health information design and use, health system function, and the health and wellbeing of Canadians.
The report identifies significant shortfalls in the current approach to health data governance and public policy that contribute to the harm of Canadians and poor health care system function. Data Disarray notes that health data public policy appears to have evolved in the absence of a plan to support opportunities offered by contemporary digital health information technology.
“Canadian health data public policy has been a curious exercise in self-destruction; an approach that has inadvertently fostered the harm of public health and wellbeing, health provider burnout, and the waste of precious health care dollars.”
– Dr. Ewan Affleck, lead author, Data Disarray
Notably, the current approach to health data design and use seems to hinder adherence to the Canada Health Act’s core conditions of portability, universality, accessibility, and comprehensiveness of health service.
“We must act to create the legislative and regulatory framework to ensure health information interoperability, and to open the immense power of data to create the conditions for safe and continuously improving quality care.”
– Dave Price, Greg’s Wings
Core recommendations made in Data Disarray include
- Health data legislation should be harmonized across Canada through a model law approach.
- Health data public policy must promote the provision of quality health programs and services in alignment with the Canada Health Act.
- Health data public policy must minimize all forms of health data-related harm.
- Health data design and use should be accountable to the principles of the pan-Canadian Health Data Charter.
- Health information technology should be regulated for safety in alignment with other medical devices covered in the Food and Drugs Act.
Data Disarray – A Root Cause Analysis of Health Data Dysfunction in Canadacan be found on the AVCCB website: albertavirtualcare.org.
About the Alberta Virtual Care Coordinating Body
The Alberta Virtual Care Coordinating Body (AVCCB) is an independent advisory body created by its sponsoring organizations and groups to foster principle-based health data governance, policy, regulation, workflow, and technology alignment across the health sector that promotes quality health programs and services.
The AVCCB aims to produce consequential and evidential policy documents that promote the health and wellbeing of Albertans and Canadians. The work aims to be explicitly neutral in temperament, and not assign to any given stakeholder group, health profession or government, accountability for the current state of health data design and use. Rather, the AVCCB upholds the belief that all health sector stakeholders, including the public, Indigenous Peoples, health providers, and governments will be better served by a cooperative and harmonious approach to health data design and use.
For further information, please visit albertavirtualcare.org.
