Fans of the original Star Trek TV series will remember Captain James T. Kirk and his crew of space explorers using a universal translator to communicate with extraterrestrial beings from other worlds.

Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) CREATE (Centre for Data Science and Digital Health) is playing a key role in developing a universal translator of sorts for Canada’s health-care system. This innovative technology will instantly connect the different electronic medical records systems used, for example, by thousands of Canada’s family doctors, hospitals and long-term care facilities, allowing providers to quickly and confidentially access patient medical records for faster, better and safer care.

Currently, Canada’s primary care providers, hospitals and other providers such as long-term care facilities use a variety of different electronic medical record systems for storing confidential patient information. These systems are rarely compatible so information can’t be quickly or easily shared. This lack of connection translates into longer waits for patient care, because of the time it takes to transfer health information between providers using outdated technology like fax machines.

If, for example, a Hamilton resident needs emergency care while in British Columbia, or even much closer to home in Niagara, there’s currently no way for emergency department doctors to instantly check the person’s entire medical history for vital information like chronic diseases, current medications, allergies and immunizations because the different systems aren’t linked.

A roadmap for instant connection

 Efforts to connect these systems are at the heart of an ambitious plan, called the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap, that could allow health-care providers across Canada to be able to instantly access each other’s electronic patient medical records. This massive project is being led by federally and provincially-funded Canada Health Infoway, which works with governments and health-care organizations to make health care more digital and connected, with a focus on accelerating digital health adoption across Canada.

“CREATE is providing expertise in interoperability – which is the ability of different systems to communicate and share data with each other, to support this,” says Dr. Jeremy Petch, CREATE’s director. Staffed with experts in software engineering, AI and data sciences, CREATE works to develop new ideas and digital solutions that fundamentally reimagine how health care is delivered. This includes working with HHS teams as well as organizations in both the public and private sector.

Infoway, in partnership with Ontario Health and British Columbia’s Provincial Health Services Authority,  launched a joint design and development of a health application lightweight protocol framework, called HALO.

CREATE’s role for this project includes developing the pan Canadian specifications for the framework that will allow web applications from providers to plug into various electronic medical records and point-of-care solutions so they can be shared.

“Through our team’s contract with Infoway, we’re helping to establish an environment where information can confidentially flow between existing, differing electronic medical records across Canada,” says Dr. Ted Scott, vice president of innovation and
partnerships for HHS.

CREATE-ing instant communication

CREATE has significant expertise in FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), the new and cutting-edge way to access health-care information instantly between different computer systems, regardless of how information is stored.

“We’re working with Infoway, Ontario and B.C. to build out one of the first components of this roadmap to demonstrate how it would work,” says Petch. “The longer-term vision is an enormous undertaking because of the scope, but the work happening now is providing valuable first steps towards what the future could look like.”

Connectathon conference

Petch and CREATE senior software architects Mo Ibrahim and Nityan Khanna, and software architect  Colin Kent-Sheppherd, are attending Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) North America Connectathon Week in Toronto, Feb. 3 to 7. It’s considered one of the world’s most significant digital health interoperability testing events, and this is its first time in Canada. The conference brings together hundreds of health IT professionals from around the world to collaborate, innovate and advance the future of health care.

Hosted by Infoway, Connectathon is well-known for its rigorous testing protocols and ability to drive meaningful advancements in health care-interoperability. HALO is being presented by Infoway, with Ontario and B.C., and CREATE representatives will be there to help answer questions. CREATE is also giving a presentation on AI, as it relates to interoperability.

“CREATE has attended past Connectathons, and the team’s involvement in this highly regarded international event speaks to their reputation as globally recognized experts in interoperability and AI,” says Scott.