Momentum in Action: Advancing Connected Care in 2025

As we enter 2025, we carry forward the momentum built through a year of dedicated effort and meaningful progress. This momentum is not accidental; it stems from a steadfast commitment to three transformative goals:

• Improving patient access to their health data
• Enabling the efficient, effective, and safe exchange of data among healthcare providers
• Harnessing usable, high-quality data to enhance health system efficiency

These guiding principles drive our efforts and ensure that every initiative contributes to a more connected and equitable healthcare system.

Looking ahead, our work remains focused on advancing these goals through four key near-term strategic priorities, tailored to the evolving healthcare landscape of 2025 and designed to sustain our momentum and deliver tangible results.

1.??? Expanding Pan-Canadian Standards for Interoperability

Health data standards remain the foundation of a more connected healthcare system, enabling the seamless exchange of information across jurisdictions, between care providers, and to patients. They power the transformation to Connected Care by ensuring that data flows securely and efficiently, breaking down silos and fostering collaboration at every level of the healthcare system. For patients, this means easier access to health information and smoother care transitions. For clinicians, standardized data simplifies decisions and reduces administrative tasks. At the system level, it enhances efficiency, resource use, and scalability. Continuing to expand and implement these standards is essential to delivering a comprehensive, modern, and interoperable healthcare system built for all Canadians.

In 2024, we made significant strides in the implementation of pan-Canadian health data standards. This year, we are committed to further expanding the scope and reach of these standards across Canada:

• Patient Summary (PS-CA): This specification supports healthcare providers in securely sharing essential patient information to improve care coordination and ensure providers have access to up-to-date health data. PS-CA establishes a consistent, interoperable framework across jurisdictions, systems, and care teams. Over the past year, Canada Health Infoway collaborated with jurisdictions, industry partners, and healthcare providers to advance Patient Summary adoption. In 2025, efforts will focus on deeper integration within jurisdictional health systems and enabling patient-mediated access to ensure all providers and patients benefit from these innovations.
• ?eReferral/eConsult (CA:eReC): eReferrals streamline the electronic creation, submission, and management of referrals, improving the timeliness and accuracy of care while reducing administrative burdens. eConsults enable secure, asynchronous provider-to-provider consultations, ensuring patients receive timely advice and second opinions without the need for formal referrals. The CA:eReC specification provides a pan-Canadian standard for interoperable referral workflows, configurable to meet regional needs while maintaining national consistency. Through programs like the Vendor Early Implementer Program, Infoway has supported IT vendors in aligning their systems with pan-Canadian standards. Moving into 2025, Infoway will continue collaborating with jurisdictions and partners to scale CA:eReC expansions and adoption from coast to coast to coast.
• Health Application Lightweight Protocol (HALO): HALO is designed to enhance primary care providers’ access to high-quality, actionable health data. The CA:HALO specification enables SMART applications to seamlessly integrate data from multiple sources or systems into a single, unified view via a web application. This empowers clinicians with streamlined access to a full suite of digital health tools, improving decision making, patient outcomes, and streamlining care delivery. In 2025, Infoway will expand HALO’s reach across Canada by co-developing tailored implementations with jurisdictions and healthcare stakeholders, addressing information gaps in primary care and fostering greater system efficiency.

These standards are vital to continuing our momentum and advancing Connected Care. In 2025, we will continue to scale their adoption across Canada, tailoring solutions to the unique needs of healthcare systems, provinces, territories, patients, and providers.

2.??? Leveraging Innovation as an Accelerator, Not a Fix

Innovative technologies, like Artificial intelligence (AI), have the potential to accelerate health system transformation, but it is not a standalone solution. At Infoway, we focus on leveraging innovation, including AI, to complement ongoing efforts in health data interoperability, patient access, and clinician support.

In primary care, for example, AI can streamline administrative tasks, reduce clinician burden, and improve patient outcomes by providing real-time insights from high-quality data. Our emphasis remains on using AI responsibly, ensuring its safe and secure integration into the healthcare ecosystem. As AI and other innovative technologies continue to gain momentum in 2025, it is more important than ever to harness their potential to accelerate foundational programs critical to building a sustainable and interoperable health system, while upholding ethical and secure practices to ensure it remains a trusted enabler of Connected Care for all Canadians.

As we move forward, one thing is clear: AI in healthcare is not just about innovation—it’s about responsibility. Successfully integrating AI requires a co-developed maturity model framework, supported by data content standards and cybersecurity best practices to ensure ethical, efficient, and secure adoption. By establishing these foundations today, Canada is positioning itself as a leader in AI-enabled healthcare for the future.

3.??? Advancing a Canadian Trust Framework

Trust is the foundation of a successful digital healthcare ecosystem. Learning from international counterparts, we are working to develop a pan-Canadian Trust Framework that ensures the safe and effective collection, use, and sharing of health data.

This effort includes engaging provinces, territories, Indigenous communities, patients, caregivers, and clinicians to collaboratively shape a blueprint that reflects diverse perspectives and needs. By prioritizing inclusivity, this framework will not only establish technical and governance standards but also build the trust necessary for practical adoption and long-term success. Looking ahead, implementing this framework will be essential to building stakeholder confidence, unlocking the true potential of healthcare data, and positioning Canada as a leader in creating a trusted and interoperable healthcare system.

4.??? Convening Transformation

Infoway’s ability to convene diverse stakeholders—governments, industry partners, clinicians and care providers, patients, and others—positions us as a catalyst for innovation and change. Collaboration is at the heart of our work, and by co-developing standards and solutions with both public and private sectors, we ensure they are outcome-driven and jurisdictionally relevant.

Programs like the Early Implementer Program and Vendor Innovation Program exemplify this approach. By bringing together industry partners to validate and refine solutions, we maintain a pace of innovation that meets the evolving needs of healthcare providers and patients while advancing the Shared pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap. As we move into 2025, sustaining this collaboration is critical to maintaining momentum, driving Connected Care, and ensuring innovation continues to transform Canada’s healthcare system for years to come.

2025: Building a Holistic Ecosystem for Transformation

Digital transformation requires more than just technology—it relies on the alignment of multiple ecosystem levers, including legislation, data stewardship, and stakeholder engagement. At Infoway, we view our initiatives as foundational pillars that support broader system goals, like reducing administrative burdens and enabling effective health system planning.

By advancing standards, fostering trust, and leveraging innovation, we both propel and complement the critical work being done by governments, healthcare providers, and organizations across Canada. Together, these efforts create the conditions for a truly connected healthcare system that delivers better outcomes for patients, providers, and the system as a whole.

As we move into 2025, we remain committed to maintaining this momentum, working collaboratively to achieve a future where Connected Care is not just a goal but a reality for all Canadians.

Stay tuned: Throughout 2025, Infoway leaders and I will share updates on our progress against these initiatives, providing transparency and accountability as we aim to maintain and propel the system-wide momentum needed to achieve even greater impact in 2025.