OTTAWA, March 8, 2021 – The CIO Strategy Council invites stakeholders to provide input on minimum requirements for exchanging health information between systems, which form the basis of a new National Standard of Canada. The draft is available for public review until May 7, 2021.
The standard provides the basis for implementing a user-centric, interoperable health network for the delivery of healthcare services. It includes provisions associated with user agency, data standards, privacy, consent, identity re-use and identity federation governance.
“This standard responds to the need for seamless, quality health care delivery across platforms and systems” says Keith Jansa, Executive Director, CIO Strategy Council.
“The type of assurance required to scale out digital economies is enabled through governance, conformance and ideally, privacy-respecting technology,” says Mike Cook, CEO of Identos, a Canadian identity and access management company. “Beyond the exchange of identity information we must also consider standards that will safely connect our online communities to enable new value from trusted API economies. Privacy-respecting authorization and consent technology will become paramount in bringing the right exchange of value together with the safety for the citizen.”
“Interoperability standards are fundamental to enabling integrated care delivery systems and electronic information exchange across the health system” says Sam Fielding, Chief Information Officer at Southlake Regional Health Centre. “As both a regional cardiac and cancer centre as well as an anchor partner in the Southlake Community Ontario Health Team, Southlake relies on industry standards like this CIO Strategy Council draft standard to guide its journey to connected, integrated care delivery. This in turn will allow our providers to have seamless access to the information they need and will empower our patients with access and consent controls to services and their health information.”
“The need for digital access has been amplified due to the COVID-19 pandemic” says Sime Pavlovic, Sector Vice President, Ontario Public Sector, Healthcare, Transportation & Regulatory at CGI. “We, at CGI, see secure, digital exchange as a critical enabler for our province to get information and services in the hands of citizens. Leveraging robust and standards-based technology will allow public and private organizations to work collaboratively, within realistic timelines, to support our communities and clients.”
In 2020, the CIO Strategy Council’s Standards Policy Committee tasked the Council’s Technical Committee on Digital Trust and Identity with developing this standard.
For more information or any questions about the Council’s standards development activities, please contact Matthew MacNeil.
Additional Background
Interview with Senator Colin Deacon on digital identity | CIO Strategy Council
About CIO Strategy Council
The CIO Strategy Council is Canada’s national forum that brings together the country’s most forward-thinking chief information officers and executive technology leaders to collectively mobilize on common digital priorities. Cutting across major sectors of the Canadian economy – public, private, and not for profit – the Council harnesses the collective expertise and action of Canada’s CIOs to accelerate Canada’s digital transformation. In 2019, the Standards Council of Canada accredited the CIO Strategy Council to develop National Standards of Canada supporting the data-driven economy. Learn more at www.ciostrategycouncil.com.
About CIO Strategy Council Standards Policy Committee
The Standards Policy Committee governs the Council’s standardization policies, sets standardization priorities and is responsible for coordinating standards development activities by establishing, dissolving and assigning responsibility to technical committees; approving new technical work; determining priorities; and maintaining the Council’s standards policies, procedures and other rules for the technical work.
About CIO Strategy Council Technical Committee on Digital Trust and Identity
The Technical Committee is responsible for the development of standards and specifications for developing, implementing, operating, monitoring, and governing trust in systems and services that consume and assert digital identity within and between organizations.
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For media inquiries:
Katie Gibson
Vice President, Strategy and Partnership
CIO Strategy Council
katie.gibson@ciostrategycouncil.com