The bill would require vendors to ensure that health information tech they license, sell or supply as a service is interoperable.
The bill is designed fill gaps in provinces and territories where similar provisions don't already exist. Last year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered provinces and territories a new 10-year health accord in response to pleas from jurisdictions that said they were facing an urgent shortage of health workers and massive backlogs to deliver care.
The federal government has argued that better comparable health data is an important part of making sure the new funds go toward actually improving health outcomes for Canadians.Canada Health Infoway has developed a federal and provincial plan to make individual health records and information more accessible to patients and clinicians, which can then be used to measure the health of the population and the system overall.