There are barriers everywhere you go, for sure. There are barriers within provinces.
I'm from a place with five health authorities, where the privacy situations actually silo those health authorities from talking to each other. The reason our provincial pacemaker database is actually in five datasets that are not on speaking terms is privacy. Believe it or not, we have the same platform for technology without the ability or permission to connect it. That is a microcosm of what is happening federally from the standpoint of our ability to connect this.
CIHI is one of those exceptions, because it has a federal lens as its host. Although there are discussions, even for things like data formats, universal language, data ownership and so on, those of us who work in research also know the challenges of data utilization. This is a big problem.
Part of the reason we believe that we are part of the solution is that CIHI is already collecting the data in a format that's at least a place to start. It doesn't include things like your dad's pacemaker data, but that data exists, and there isn't a reason the projects can't move toward that federalization of data systems with analysis and implementation.
We are a national organization with practitioners across the country. Our six subcommittees that talk about qualitative things such as pacemakers are content experts from across the country. They're in a position to look at this and ask, for instance, is the population in western Canada younger, and is that why their rate of outcomes is different? You need those content and process experts to be able to utilize the data and to say, “This then teaches us the following things that can change policy and process.”