Infoway Standards Collaborative
Standards facilitate information exchange and are a critical foundation for an interoperable EHR. They create the opportunity for future cost reduction as systems converge on pan-Canadian and international standards. In addition, standards can ease the effort required for replication.
Launched in 2006, the Standards Collaborative is a new Canada-wide coordination function created to support and sustain health information standards in Canada. Hosted at Infoway, the Standards Collaborative will be responsible for the implementation support, education, conformance, and maintenance for electronic health records (EHR) standards currently being developed by Infoway. The Standards Collaborative will also encompass several standards initiatives formerly managed by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.(CIHI), including the Partnership for Health Information Standards, HL7, Canada's participation in DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) and, in conjunction with the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the secretariat to the Canadian Advisory Committee to ISO/TC 215.
Standards collaboration is an integral element of and a key requirement for the establishment of a pan-Canadian interoperable EHR. In addition to the new responsibilities outlined above, Infoway will continue to support the Standards Collaborative Process to establish pan-Canadian EHR health information standards.
Our Standards Collaborative forums support communication and exchange among various communities interested in health care and health care informatics deliberation and consensus building on standards.
The forums can be accessed via the KnowledgeWay by signing in to the Infoway Passport.
If you don't have a Passport, sign up for one.
In addition, coordination of and access to the
SNOMED CT®
clinical terminology standard is through the Standards Collaborative as a result of Infoway's role
as Canada's representative to its owner, the International Health Terminology Standards
Development Organization (IHTSDO).
Get the Standards Collaborative Guide & Standards Catalogue for more information about Infoway Standards Collaborative, its history, strategies, mandate, governance and services; how to get involved (membership and SC Working Groups); the approach to selecting and approving standards; and a listing of the standards (description, benefits, status and the business functions they support).