Data Disarray: The root of health data dysfunction in Canada
December 12, 2024 | Chapter Event
Data Disarray: The root of health data dysfunction in Canada
Dr. Ewan Affleck will present highlights of the newly published report ‘Data Disarray- A Root Cause Analysis of Health Data Dysfunction in Canada’.
Most experts agree that health data is poorly designed and used in Canada and that is leading to the harm of Canadians and significant health care system dysfunction. In order to address this problem it is important to identify the cause. In Data Disarray we establish that a significant contributor to health data dysfunction in Canada is a poorly crafted or absent health data policy and governance. These shortfalls in health data policy and governance promote the institutional fragmentation of health data which leads to the harm of Canadians and damage to the health care system.
Learning objectives:
1. Understanding the link between health data design and use and the provision of quality care.
2. Understand that the current policy and governance approach to health data in Canada is harming patients, providers and the health care system
3. Understand that the way we use health data in Canada violates the Canada Health Act.
4. Examine what can be done to fix this situation.
Speakers:
Ewan Affleck CM., BSc., MDCM., CCFP.
Ewan Affleck has worked and lived in northern Canada since 1992. He is currently serving as the Senior Medical Advisor - Health Informatics, College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta, Strategic Advisor - Clinical and Informatics at the Canadian Institute for Health Information, and Chair of the Alberta Virtual Care Working Group. He is the past Chief Medical Information Officer of the Northwest Territories, was co-chair of the national Virtual Care Task Force, served on the Expert Working Group of the pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy, and is the Executive Producer and co-writer of The Unforgotten (2021), an award-winning film about inequities in health service for Indigenous people living in Canada. In 2013, he was appointed to the Order of Canada for his contribution to northern health care.
