Evidence of meeting #59 for Health in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infoway.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
I'm referring to their caregivers more than the patients themselves.
12:55 p.m.
Lead, Centre for Global eHealth Innovation
You're right to say that there's a practical aspect to it. With records that are in mixed paper and electronic form, for the patients to practically access it, is an issue. There are fees that are charged to do the photocopying, so there are these systemic practical considerations. I don't have an easy solution, because from hospital to hospital, from care provider to care provider, it is a different scenario.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Chief Information Officer, Manitoba eHealth Program
The very nature of providing clinical records over an electronic application means that you identify the patient. The very fact of collecting the information in a way that is not bound to a site.... Imagine the hospital of the past, with rooms full of charts and the archives that are sent away in big armoured trucks and everything else. When you create electronic health records, they are, by their very nature, shareable because they are easy to move around and so on. You create some challenges from a privacy point of view, but I fully agree, these challenges can be easily surmounted. With the patient's consent, it's not an issue in any case. I think we're heading in that direction.
I would ask people to remember the last time you booked an airline ticket and you had to use—
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
Maybe with that I'll just let Ms. Langlois end it. She's put her hand up, and we have just two minutes.
12:55 p.m.
Acting Assistant Deputy Minster, Regional Operations, First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada
I am responding to your question about thinking outside the dots and thinking about where we need to go in the future here. My colleague has mentioned the determinants of health. What we're increasingly doing, besides electronic work and the e-health work, is looking for strategies for communities to develop their own strategies, their own capacity, so they can address their own determinants of health. That is the piece for us that's clearly thinking outside the dots.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joy Smith
This has been an amazing committee. We could stay here all day with you and not run out of questions. I want to thank each and every one of you especially for being here today. It's exciting. This committee just whipped by today. Every time someone started to speak, we learned something new. I want to thank you so much for that, and, committee, I want to thank you so much for your questions.
We are dismissed.