Patient Summary

A patient summary is not a patient’s entire health record, but a portion of it. It’s comprised of a standardized collection of patient information: the necessary minimum and sufficient data to inform a patient’s treatment at a point of care. It may include elements like a patient’s medications, allergies and immunizations.

Patient Summaries enhance patient safety by ensuring critical information is readily accessible when it’s needed most, like an unexpected visit to the emergency room or walk-in clinic. With access to key information from patient health records, clinicians across disciplines can provide more informed, consistent care.

Patient Summaries benefit clinicians by improving workflow, reducing paperwork and other types of administrative burden.

With the increased use of virtual care, it’s important that digital health care information systems across provinces, territories, and care settings are interoperable: that they all "speak the same language.” That’s why Infoway is advancing the pan-Canadian Patient Summary Specification (PS-CA), a guideline that defines the terminology that information systems across provinces, territories, languages, and specialties use to communicate with one another. 

The PS-CA is just one part of a national collaborative effort by Infoway, provinces & territories, health technology vendors, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). This pan-Canadian initiative will standardize the terminology that health information systems use to securely share information, enabling patient data — including patient summaries — to flow seamlessly between different systems.