Ottawa, ON — The Digital Governance Standards Institute (DGSI) is pleased to announce a new exploratory work item and public consultation on the development of a proposed National Standard of Canada for Patient-Controlled Verifiable Health Records and Healthcare Encounter Receipts.
The proposed National Standard would establish requirements for issuing, holding, presenting, and verifying patient-controlled digital healthcare records as trusted, portable digital assets. It would enable healthcare providers and related organizations to issue digitally signed healthcare encounter records directly to patients, allowing individuals to securely store and share verified health information through patient-controlled digital wallets.
The initiative is intended to complement existing electronic medical records (EMR), electronic health records (EHR), and healthcare interoperability frameworks by supporting a trusted system-to-patient-to-system model for the exchange of health information. The proposed standard would address areas including digital trust, patient consent, privacy protection, identity assurance, verification, auditability, and alignment with Canadian healthcare interoperability frameworks.
As healthcare delivery becomes increasingly digital and mobile, patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, governments, and industry stakeholders are seeking new approaches to improve continuity of care while maintaining privacy, security, and trust. The proposed standard would help establish a consistent framework for patient-controlled health records that can be used across providers, organizations, and jurisdictions.
DGSI is seeking input from healthcare providers, digital health organizations, government agencies, privacy experts, patient and caregiver advocates, standards professionals, technology providers, researchers, and other interested stakeholders on the proposed standard.
The consultation period will remain open for 60 days from the date of publication of this notice and close on August 29, 2026. You can consult the exploratory work via Patient-Controlled Verifiable Health Records and Healthcare Encounter Receipts.
Interested parties are invited to review the proposed exploratory work item and provide comments, feedback on the feasibility of the proposal, and expressions of interest in participating in the standard development activities should the proposal be approved for development.
Feedback may be submitted directly to:
Darryl Kingston
Executive Director
Digital Governance Standards Institute
darryl.kingston@dgc-cgn.org
All submissions received during the consultation period will be reviewed and considered as part of DGSI’s assessment of the proposed work item and its potential advancement within the National Standards System.
About the Digital Governance Standards Institute (DGSI)
The Digital Governance Standards Institute develops digital technology governance standards fit for global use. The Institute works with experts, as well as national and global partners and the public to develop national standards that reduce risk to Canadians and Canadian organizations adopting and using innovative digital technologies in today’s digital economy. The Institute is an independent division of the Digital Governance Council. To learn more about the organization and its initiatives, visit www.dgc-cgn.org or contact info@dgc-cgn.org.