Connected Care in Action: Real Progress, Real Stories, Real Impact

A Longwoods Leadership Discussion presented in partnership with Canada Health Infoway

Healthcare in Canada is being reimagined — not in theory, but in practice.

Across clinics, communities, and systems, people are rethinking how care is delivered, how information is shared, and how technology can help close gaps instead of widening them. And at the heart of this transformation? Innovation. Not as a buzzword, but as an accelerant. It’s what turns bold ideas into better outcomes.

From AI tools that ease clinical workload, to Indigenous-led digital solutions, to platforms that put health information directly in patients’ hands, innovation is pushing progress forward in real time. But change doesn’t happen by chance. It’s built through partnerships, lived experience, and a shared commitment to doing things differently.

Connected Care in Action is a five-part national webinar series hosted by Longwoods and Canada Health Infoway. It’s about what’s working, what we’re learning, and how we move forward, together.

Each session explores a key piece of Canada’s Connected Care journey, spotlighting the real-world innovations –and the people behind them– that are reshaping the system.

These aren’t theoretical discussions. They’re grounded in practice, focused on outcomes, and rooted in the belief that smart, inclusive innovation is the right way to scale better, more Connected Care for everyone.

What You Can Expect

• Candid conversations with clinicians, community leaders, and digital health innovators
• Real-world examples of how innovation is accelerating Connected Care across Canadian provinces and communities
• Global insights from international leaders tackling similar challenges in different contexts
• Honest reflections on what’s working, and what’s getting in the way, from those driving change
• Stories of progress in motion, from AI documentation tools to Indigenous- and community-driven solutions
• A deeper understanding of how innovation, when thoughtfully applied, can drive smarter and more inclusive transformation

Webinar 3: Built to Scale: Rethinking Interoperability for Smarter, Connected Care

Date: September 29, 2025, at 12 PM 

Innovation can’t scale without strong, connected foundations. As Canada’s health system becomes more digitally enabled, it needs infrastructure that supports secure, seamless, and real-time information sharing. That is where interoperability comes in. But achieving it means more than just linking systems. It requires thoughtful design that reflects how care is actually delivered.

This session explores how Canada is redefining interoperability as a strategic enabler of better care. It supports clinicians in their workflows, improves the patient experience, and drives system-wide performance.

At the centre is HALO (Health Application Lightweight Protocol), a foundational approach to building modular, vendor-neutral systems that integrate directly into clinical practice. HALO is more than a technical tool; it represents a new way of designing digital infrastructure around the realities of care.

We will share early insights from HALO pilots in British Columbia and Ontario, where this approach is being tested to reduce administrative burden, improve timely access to information, and enable more connected, coordinated care.

Bringing together clinical, technical, and implementation perspectives, this session will show how interoperability, when built with usability and trust in mind, can accelerate progress toward modern, team-based, patient-centered care.

What You’ll Learn

• How interoperability can improve clinical workflows, reduce administrative burden, and support more coordinated care
• What HALO is, and how it offers a new, modular approach to building vendor-neutral digital health systems
• Early lessons from HALO pilot projects in British Columbia and Ontario, and what they reveal about real-world implementation
• How thoughtful infrastructure design can improve patient experience and system performance
• What it takes to shift from fragmented systems to connected care across Canada

Featured Speakers

This session features leaders and builders advancing next-generation interoperability frameworks:

• Dr. Ed Brown, Advisor, Canada Health Infoway 
• Amanda Gray, Senior Executive Director, Enterprise Architecture, Strategic Platforms & Solutions, Provincial Health Services Authority, British Columbia
• Moe Fawal, Director, Product Management and Delivery - Virtual Care, Ontario Health

Together, they’ll explore how to move from fragmented systems to connected care, and how infrastructure innovation can accelerate meaningful change at scale.

Click here to see Speaker Bios

Webinar 2: From the Ground Up: Community-Driven Innovation in Underserved Settings

Date: Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Click here to watch the video of the event.

Digital health innovation often emerges from research labs and policy tables, but some of the most impactful solutions begin at the community level, in response to real-world needs. Across Canada, clinicians, Indigenous leaders, health organizations, and local changemakers are designing and deploying digital tools that are improving care in rural, remote, and underserved settings. These efforts reflect a growing global movement toward more equitable, locally driven models of care.

This session explores how community-driven innovation is advancing Connected Care and why equity, cultural relevance, and local leadership are essential for long-term success. We’ll spotlight real-world stories from across the country, including initiatives supported by Canada Health Infoway’s Connected Care Innovation Grant, delivered through the Centre for Clinical Innovation in Digital Health (CIDH). From EMS systems to Indigenous health centres, these projects demonstrate what’s possible when innovation is co-designed with communities, not just for them.

What You'll Learn

• How community-led digital health innovation is improving care in underserved settings
• Why equity, cultural relevance, and local leadership are critical to digital health success
• Insights from CIDH-supported Connected Care Innovation Grant projects
• How grassroots innovation can shape broader system strategies

Featured Speakers

This session brings together leaders and innovators working at the intersection of equity, access, and technology:

• Dr. Rashaad Bhyat, Senior Clinical Leader, Canada Health Infoway
• Dr. Dan Pepe, Family Physician, Digital Health Innovator, and 2024/25 CIDH Grant Recipient, Self-Service Primary Care
• Dr. Ivar Mendez, Professor Emeritus of Neurosurgery, Director of the Saskatchewan Virtual Health Hub and Director of the Virtual Care and Remote Presence Robotics Program at the University of Saskatchewan
• Dr. Salim Samanani, CEO and Medical Director, OKAKI; Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health, University of Alberta

Together, these voices will highlight how innovation accelerates not just through technology, but through trust, relevance, and community leadership.

Click here for Speaker information. 

Webinar 1: At the Front Line: How AI Is Giving Clinicians Time Back 

Date: June 18, 2025.

This session explores how AI-powered scribe tools are easing clinicians’ documentation burden, improving care workflows, and giving time back to patients through responsible, real-world integration.

Speakers

• Dr. Rashaad Bhyat, Senior Clinical Leader, Canada Health Infoway  
• Dr. Eileen Lynn McCallum, Primary Care Physician, Enhance Health Medical in Edmonton 
• Dr. Jaron Easterbrook, Co-chair of the Information Sharing Task Group, Doctors of BC 
• Moderator: Edwin White Chacon, Manager, Enablement Services, Canada Health Infoway 

Click here for Speaker information. Click here to watch the video of the event.

Fall 2025
Built to Scale: Rethinking Interoperability for Smarter, Connected Care
This session examines how Canada is reimagining interoperability through frameworks like HALO to build modular, scalable, and workflow-friendly systems that better connect patients and providers.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025; 12PM ET

Fall 2025
Accelerating Together: How Public-Private Collaboration Drives System Change
This session explores how partnerships between government and vendors, including through Infoway’s VIP program, are advancing scalable, standards-based innovation to modernize care delivery.
Date and Time TBA

Winter 2025
Testing What’s Possible: Projectathons and the Future of Interoperability
This session unpacks the role of Projectathons, real-world testing events, in validating digital health solutions, fostering collaboration, and accelerating national interoperability goals.
Date and Time TBA

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About Canada Health Infoway

At Canada Health Infoway (Infoway), we believe a more connected and collaborative system is a healthier system and one that leads to better health outcomes for all Canadians. By leveraging digital technologies and innovations, we’re working with governments, healthcare organizations, clinicians, and patients to advance Connected Care across the country. This improves care coordination, empowers patients to have a more active role in managing their health, and equips care providers with information and insights to support better care both at the point of care and throughout their patients' health journey. Most importantly, it modernizes our health care system towards a future with patient-centered care at its heart. 

We’re an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government and accountable to our Board of Directors and Members of the Corporation (Canada’s 14 federal, provincial and territorial deputy ministers of health). Infoway is led by a team of seasoned professionals who are specialists in their respective fields, including health care, administration, information technology and privacy. Visit us online at www.infoway-inforoute.ca.

About Connected Care and Interoperability

Connected Care is a healthcare model where systems, providers, and technologies work together seamlessly to support real-time communication and secure data sharing. It means that patient information moves easily across platforms, allowing clinicians to collaborate more effectively and make better-informed decisions.

For patients, Connected Care offers more than convenience, it empowers them with greater access to their own health information, helping them play a more active role in their care. Whether managing a chronic condition or navigating a new diagnosis, patients and their care teams are better connected, making it easier to get the right care at the right time, no matter where they are.

Interoperability means that different healthcare systems can communicate, exchange, and use health information securely and effectively. This allows patient data to be shared and understood across various platforms, reducing errors, improving care coordination, and enhancing health outcomes. Interoperability is crucial for achieving Connected Care, ensuring that all parts of the healthcare system work together efficiently.

Infoway is leading a national effort to advance interoperability, guided by the pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap. By helping information flow seamlessly between different healthcare solutions and devices. When systems can “speak the same language,” it improves care continuity, collaboration among providers, and patient access to health information.  

Learn about Infoway’s plans to advance Connected Care across Canada by viewing this helpful infographic.

 

Infoway Resources

Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap

In March 2023, Infoway released the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap, a strategic plan developed to guide the efforts of provinces, territories, and healthcare organizations across Canada in achieving interoperability within the healthcare system. This roadmap outlines the steps needed to enable seamless data sharing and communication between different healthcare systems, devices, and technologies across the country.

Learn more about the Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap

Interoperability

In collaboration with provinces and territories, Infoway is leading a national effort to advance interoperability in healthcare, ensuring that information flows seamlessly between different systems and devices.>

Learn more about how interoperability is transforming healthcare. Visit Infoway’s Interoperability Page to explore Infoway’s work on advancing patient summaries and eReferral/eConsult specifications across Canada.

Interacting with Interoperability 

Interoperability is more than just a technical concept—it’s the backbone of a connected healthcare system that works efficiently for everyone. To help you understand its impact, explore the following interactive resources that bring the benefits of interoperability to life:

• eReferral Use Case: See how a more connected health system can improve the patient experience.
• Path to Connected Care: Understand how interoperability enhances health system outcomes and care quality.

Relevant resources, surveys and reports:

• Pan-Canadian Interoperability Specifications (and supplement pages)
• 2023 Canadian Digital Health Survey – Understanding Canadians' experiences with digital health
• 2023 Canadian Survey of Nurses – Understanding the utilization and impact of digital health technologies on nursing practice
• 2024 National Survey of Canadian Physicians –  Understanding the use of digital health and information technologies by Canadian physicians in practice
• Infoway x CIHI Webinar – Care Coordination and Collaboration in the Canadian Health Care System
• Video – What Connected Care Means to the Future of Canada's Health Care System  
• Breaking Barriers: 2025 Projectathon Ushers in a New Era of Connected Care 

Insights from Infoway's Leaders

Empowering Healthcare’s Heroes: Introducing the Connected Care Innovation Grant

Dr. Rashaad Bhyat

A Strong Foundation: Leveraging Digital Health Tools in Primary Care  

Dr. Rashaad Bhyat  

The Urgency of Addressing Physician Burnout: A Call to Action for Canada 

Michael Green & Abhinav Kalra

The 2025 IHE North America Connectathon: How Canada is Advancing Interoperability 

Michael Green

Empowering Clinicians with AI: Announcing the AI Scribe Program

Krista Balenko

Enhancing Connected Care through Public-Private Partnerships: The Patient Summary

Abhinav Kalra 

 

Connected Care Education Video Series

AI Scribe: More Time for Patient Care 

Collecting, using, and sharing patient health data efficiently is critical for primary care clinicians. But documentation — while essential — is often time-consuming. AI Scribes help by securely transcribing key medical details and summarizing conversations, giving clinicians more time for patient care. 

 

Terminology Standards 

Terminology standards create a common clinical language, ensuring healthcare terms are consistently understood across providers, systems, and care settings. They ensure patients’ health records are recorded consistently and easily accessed by any clinician, no matter where care is received. 

Simplifying Clinical Workflows with HALO 

HALO (Health Application Lightweight Protocol) is a national framework that connects approved digital apps seamlessly with clinical systems like electronic medical records (EMRs). HALO allows clinicians to access essential tools — like referrals and patient data — directly from an EMR without extra logins or duplicate data entry. 

 

The Power of the Patient Summary 

The patient summary is transforming how health information flows, creating a safer, smarter, more connected system. It ensures clinicians have the right information at the right time, wherever care is provided. Learn more about the Pan-Canadian Patient Summary Specification (PS-CA), a key building block for secure, accurate data exchange. 

 

Effective Management of Patient Referrals 

eReferrals are streamlining the patient referral process, making it faster, more secure, and more efficient for patients and clinicians. Learn how the Pan-Canadian eReferral/eConsult Interoperability Specification (CA:eReC) enables seamless referrals across the health system — and how Infoway is supporting nationwide adoption. 

 

Faster, Smarter Access to Specialist Advice 

eConsult provides clinicians with faster access to specialist input, enabling informed care decisions sooner. It streamlines workflows, reduces wait times, and improves continuity of care. Through the Pan-Canadian eConsult Interoperability Specification (CA:eReC), Infoway is helping scale and integrate eConsult solutions across Canada.  

Pathways to Progress: Driving Connected Care in Canada 

Learn more about the importance of Connected Care in Canada and Infoway's role in convening jurisdictional and industry partners to advance innovative digital health solutions that help improve patient care.

From Longwoods Publishing

• Commonwealth Fund Survey...Emphasizes the need for Interoperability...
• Enabling Connected Care with a Person-Centred Data Foundation
• Human Factor Health Data Interoperability
• Virtual Care in Canada as of the Sixth Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Finding the Right Balance
• E-Mental Health Services in Canada: Can They Close the Access Gap?
• Unlocking the Power of Health Data: How the Connected Care for Canadians Act Propels Canada into the Next Phase of Patient-Centred Care
• Defining "Essential Digital Health for the Underserved"