ITAC Health, the Health Division of the Information Technology Association of Canada, has prepared 4 questions to the candidates of the 2019 election. These questions will be further utilized as topics for future advisory discussions with the successful candidates, be it the new national political party caucus, or jurisdictional MP representatives. We invite members and others to join in a social media discussion on the above questions to further the dialogue around these very important issues.
- Small and medium-sized Canadian companies are challenged to penetrate the Canadian Health ICT marketplace due to risk averse procurement practices and a lack of national standards for interoperability and data protection. What will your government do to support start-up and scale-up Canadian companies, developing innovative ICT solutions for the health sector, to effectively sell and deploy their solutions across Canada and into a global marketplace?
- Recognizing the extreme sensitivity of personal health information, and the fact that the Canadian healthcare system is critical infrastructure vulnerable to attack by malicious agents, what will your government do to enable healthcare organizations and healthcare professionals to meet the challenges of cybersecurity?
- In order to ensure a sustainable healthcare system, in that Canadians are enabled to in the management of their own health. What will your government do to ensure that the Virtual Care agenda is moved forward and encourage consumers/citizens to become more engaged in their health and well-being, including managing their personal health information on-line?
- While healthcare is a provincial jurisdiction, the federal government has taken a leadership role in facilitating a national consensus on digital health through federal agencies, government departments and national reports. What will your government do to ensure that the benefits of digital health are accessible to all Canadians and their care providers?