When a cyber attack led to multiple hospitals in southwest Ontario offline for weeks, Kale McMurren cancer treatment had to move to another medical care center two hours away.
He October 2023 attack It meant that Digital Health records of McMurren through the Windsor Regional Hospital were unattainable. To take his medical history to the hospital in London, where he was transferred, McMurren says that the printed copies files were sent by Fax.
If McMurren had his own copy, he could have brought the files himself to London.
“I agree to have [my] Medical records would help me in [that] Situation, “he said.
At that time, the five hospitals attacked in cyber attack told hundreds of thousands of patients who, with low systems, doctors may not have past records or medical history, the current list of medicines or reports from other doctors involved in their treatment.
A cyber attack is just an example in which to access patients to their medical records can be useful. There was legislation in the works before the federal elections were called that access to the law would have enshrined, but it was effectively expelled with the extended Parliament.
Defenders and experts expect the problem, and the reintroduction of the legislation, will be a priority for the next elected government, but there has been little mention of the problem throughout the federal electoral campaign.
“[It] It is not a sexy issue, but it is the basis of the future of the medical care system, “said Flavie Laliberté, a patient partner of the McGill University Health Center who advises on improvements in digital health.
Most Canadians still have no access
While an increasing number of Canadians has been able to access digitally to part of their medical information in the last five years, most do not.
The first data of the survey shared with CBC News by Canada Health Infoway, a government funded by the government that works in a connected Cross country medical care system, reports that 47 percent of Canadians accessed part of their medical information in 2024.
That is approximately 27 percent in 2020, reports the organization.
Depending on where you live in the country, it could have more or less access, it is because each province and territory have been creating its own patient portals.
The goal of Canada Health Infoway is to help digitize, standardize and connect systems throughout the country, says Abhi Kalra, executive vice president of the organization.
For example, says Kalra, the prescription information of a patient could be in pharmacies, his vaccination record could be in a provincial information bank and then his family doctor would have a separate system with notes of those appointments.
Gathering all this data to create a “comprehensive real -time vision of your health history” for medical care providers is the next step, says Kalra.
Why does this matter? Integral health records not only make the system more efficient, but can also help you be informed and committed to your medical care.
Currently, the exchange of scanning or evidence between doctors and specialists is fragmented throughout the country, which The reports show It can increase the probability of medical errors and damage to patients.
Patient advisor Laliberté says it’s like a hockey game.
“The data of the health patients are the disc and the clinics, the pharmacists, the hospitals, those are the players,” he said.
“And players must be able to share that data to write down, to improve efficiency, improve access [and] Avoid mistakes. ”
Dr. Tara Kiran, a family doctor at St. Michael Hospital in Toronto, knows the problem well.
“Too often … I don’t have all the information where a patient has been in the health system and the different tests they have had,” he said.
He added that making legislation that guarantees that Canadians have access to their medical records could help accelerate the process.
“I feel that if we take that step in Canada, it will actually force many of the players, or all players, step forward and make the necessary changes,” he said.
Limbo legislation
Last summer, the then Federal Minister of Health, Mark Holland, presented Bill C-72, the Law of Attention Connected for Canadians.
The bill would have allowed patients to safely access their personal health information and allow medical care providers to share it, as among hospitals and doctors or pharmaceutical specialists who work in the community.
It would also have required technology companies to make their health information software compatible with each other.
“The C-72 bill will actually legislate the exchange of information and that is significant,” said Shelagh Maloney, CEO of the Health Canada Digital Defense Organization.
But since Parliament was prurrogated before the bill was approved, technically it has been ruled out. If it is a priority for the next government, it must be reintroduced once Parliament resumes.
Why is Canada so far?
When asked why Canada is no more advanced in this process, Toronto Kiran doctor said: “We have not put the patients first.”
“On the other hand, I think we have often put the interests of the organizations or companies of individual suppliers ahead.”
Other countries such as Denmark and Spain, he says, have had more technologically advanced legislation and systems for years.
Digital Health Canada Maloney agrees that patients have not been at the forefront, and says that changing that culture is one of the challenges. He also points out that legislation can limit the ability to share information between provinces.
Kalra of Canada Health Infoway says that one of the key challenges is that the parts of the system are still changing from paper to digital, such as recipes and references.
But repeatedly he said that because this is a priority throughout the health sector, Canada will come there, it is simply clear when.
What do the parties plan to do?
None of the online platforms of the four main parts of Canada directly mentions the connected attention for Canadian legislation.
In an email, a spokesman for the Liberal Party addressed CBC News to its online platform, which says that a liberal government will take care of the legislation to “ensure that Canadians can safely access their medical care data.”
Meanwhile, an NDP spokesman said in an email that the “firmly” party supports better access to patient information and blames liberals for delaying legislation.
“Canada needs a legislative framework designed to improve punctuality and safety of access to health information for both patients and medical care suppliers,” says part of the party’s statement.
In an email to CBC News, the candidate of the Green Green party, Anne-Marie Zajdlik, doctor and “defender of equitable care,” he said on behalf of the part.
She said that the greens would visit the bill C-72 again and that the party supports the legislation that “enshrines the right of each Canadian to access their health records” and would unite Canadian governments to “develop safe and interoperable digital health systems.”
The conservative party did not respond to a request for comments.
