Thank you.
I think this is a major issue for me as surgeon general, because my job is to ensure the safety and quality of health care. Mismanaging the transfer of information has a negative impact on the transition from military to civilian life. Transferring information, in that context, is critical. We recently launched a great initiative to give Veterans Affairs officials access to CAF members’ electronic medical files in order to simplify data sharing. That is done internally between two federal departments.
As far as information sharing between the federal and the provinces is concerned, that is another question entirely. That is no easy task, because we have to find 13 different solutions, one for each province and territory. There is a lot to do on that front. Currently, we give CAF members a copy of their medical file when they are released, so they can have the information if they need to give it to another organization. There is no way to do that electronically, because there is no single medical file per province. Some have only one, but the majority have many different electronic medical files. We will need to pay close attention to this to make sure that information transfers are done safely and securely.