Connecting Canada’s Health Data: Building the Foundation for Better Care

By: Justin Wolting, Manager, Product Development and Innovation, Amplify Care

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak at the HIMSS Eastern Chapter Conference, where I shared how Amplify Care is working alongside some incredible partners to tackle one of Canada’s biggest digital health challenges: our disconnected health data ecosystem.

Why Canada Needs to Connect the Dots

Right now, health data in Canada lives in silos. Patient information is scattered across multiple systems across the care continuum (primary/community/acute, etc.), and not all of it connects or follows a common structure. That fragmentation can lead to serious issues:

• Patients don’t always have access to their full health record.
• Clinicians spend too much time on administrative tasks instead of patient care.
• Health organizations don’t have the data they need to see the full picture, and therefore miss opportunities to plan, innovate, and improve.
• And ultimately, our health system loses billions each year to inefficiencies.

This is where data standardization and interoperability come in: because connected, consistent information is the foundation of safe, effective, and equitable care.

Partnering with CIHI to Move the System Forward

We’ve partnered with the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) who have been hard at work developing the Pan-Canadian Health Data Content Framework, a national standard designed to bring all health-related data under one common language and structure.

A key piece of that framework is the Canadian Core Data for Interoperability (CACDI). Think of CACDI as a blueprint for the core health data that can be securely shared between provinces, territories, and care settings. It works hand-in-hand with Canada Health Infoway’s CA Core+ FHIR profiles to make data exchange possible in a consistent, safe, and standardized way.

Turning Theory into Practice: Our Proof of Concept

To put all of this into action, our team collaborated with CIHI on a proof of concept (POC) focused on one small but incredibly important area: health concerns data (aka Problem List) in primary care.

Using Cody, one of our software bots (or virtual assistants, as we like to call them) and some smart EMR tools, we showed how health concerns can be standardized to the Pan-Canadian Health Concern Value Set (PHCVS) and transformed to align with CA Core+ FHIR profiles, so that information can be securely exchanged between systems.

This POC gave us a real-world look at what’s working and where the challenges lie. Here’s what we heard from clinicians:

• Fragmented data practices: There’s still a lot of variability in how information is documented, and free-text entries dominate.
• Workflow burden: Coding takes time and isn’t a top priority over direct patient care, which means that tools have to fit naturally into clinical routines.
• RPA as a helper, not a hassle: Many clinicians liked how Cody surfaced missed diagnoses and improved data quality, though they also had thoughtful questions about transparency and categorization.

Looking Ahead

We see this as the start of something much bigger. Our next steps include expanding the scope of coded health concerns, supporting more EMR vendors, and extending this work to other areas of the health record. Ultimately, the goal is to enable system-to-system data exchange, creating a truly connected health ecosystem across Canada. When we standardize information, we create the foundation for everything else: better care, smarter planning, and space for innovation.

Coming Up On The Blog In a Few Weeks: Responsible AI in Health Care

At Amplify Care, we’re already exploring how AI can enhance our virtual assistants, like Cody, to deliver even more value at the point of care. I’ll be back in a few weeks to share more about my second HIMSS presentation, which I talked more about this vision and what responsible AI looks like in the future of primary care.