Maggie Chi

Madam Speaker, Greeting · 8 wordsit is great to see you here today.Greeting Procedure · 24 wordsI will be sharing my time with the member for Bourassa. I rise today to support Bill S-5, the connected care for Canadians act, ProcedureClaims · 820 wordswhich is crucial to establishing a connected health care system in Canada. In Canada, health information is fragmented and is scattered among hundreds of health information systems across family doctor offices, hospitals, walk-in clinics and pharmacies.¹ Bill S-5 would break down these digital barriers so a patient’s health information could move securely and seamlessly wherever they receive care. It means that patients would no longer have to physically carry medical records from one doctor’s appointment to another or repeatedly explain their medical history every time they seek care. Bill S-5 is also about making the health care system work better for Canadians. It would unlock the potential of standardized and anonymized health data to accelerate medical breakthroughs and improve health outcomes for all Canadians. Health information in Canada is often stuck in separate digital systems that cannot be easily shared, first, because of data blocking, a practice that prevents authorized users from accessing health data even when privacy legislation allows it, and, second, because of a lack of common standards. For example, one hospital’s database could record a patient’s blood type using a numeric code, another could use an alphanumeric code, and a third hospital might use a written description. All three could mean exactly the same thing, but without common standards, their computer systems might not recognize each other’s blood type entries. To address this, Bill S-5 would require health information vendors in Canada to adopt common standards and would prohibit vendors from data blocking. These standards would be set out and maintained through regulations, with requirements that would ensure secure access for patients within the protection of existing security law. This is the approach used in other jurisdictions as well, such as Australia, the United States and the European Union. Bill S-5 would build on the shared pan-Canadian interoperability road map, already endorsed by provinces and territories, and on the working together to improve health care for Canadians plan, which committed nearly $200 billion over 10 years, with modernizing health data as one of four shared priorities.² When somebody sees a new doctor, they are asked for their medical history. Bill S-5 would enable patients and their doctors to access health records electronically, no matter where in Canada patients receive care. This is connected care. Doctors’ being able to access electronic health records is critical to the continuity of care. Without a seamless exchange of information between systems and providers, the burden of health information falls to patients and their families. Moreover, the lack of access to a patient’s medical records increases the risks of misdiagnoses, medication errors, duplicate testing and treatment delays. Take, for example, patients in rural and remote communities or patients with very complex conditions who are referred to hospitals in major urban centres for advanced diagnostic procedures, complex treatments and highly specialized medical care. Oftentimes these patients arrive in serious condition, usually with photocopies of their health records, and the information is often incomplete. Patients with a language barrier or limited medical familiarity shoulder the burden of coordinating their own care because there is no digital connection between our health information systems. In all these cases, important health information is often missing or inaccessible. Unfortunately, this happens very often. Bill S-5 would help support these patients with a more coordinated and integrated health care system, with accurate and accessible data so doctors can make clinical decisions with complete information and provide the health care Canadians deserve. In today’s rapidly evolving world of medical research and innovation, large, high-quality data sets are the foundation of medical breakthroughs such as accelerating drug discoveries and enabling earlier disease detection. For example, the quality, quantity and representativeness of the data sets largely determines how accurately a health AI model performs in real-world settings. Our government’s national AI strategy, AI for all, recognizes data as a strategic national asset that must be responsibly stewarded and mobilized to support innovation and productivity across the economy.³ Our health care system generates a vast amount of health data, spanning diverse populations, medical conditions and care settings. By leveraging our standardized and anonymized health data, Canadian researchers have an opportunity to become global leaders in medical research and health innovation, driving medical breakthroughs and improving health outcomes for all Canadians. Currently, much of this data remains fragmented in disconnected systems. By securely unlocking its potential by applying common standards, our medical researchers can drive breakthroughs in disease detection, treatment and improved hospital efficiency. For example, in my riding of Don Valley North, we are fortunate to have North York General Hospital, Canada’s top-ranked community academic hospital.⁴ It partnered with a Canadian health AI company, and by leveraging the data it has collected from the emergency department, it has trained an AI model that analyzes real-time patient vitals, waiting times, triage assessments and hospital capacity to identify where patients can receive care sooner. This has cut the average emergency wait time by nearly 28%.⁵ Positioning · 4 wordsData can save lives.Positioning Reasoning · 32 wordsThe knowledge that can be unlocked from our health data sets has the power to transform our health care system. Better health data means a more accessible and innovative health care system. Claims · 12 wordsThat is why Bill S-5 is such a consequential piece of legislation, Reasoning · 18 wordsand I believe it is a practical path forward that would serve the best interests of all Canadians.