NURSING INFORMATICS IN CANADA

Introduction
Over the last several years, the Canadian nursing informatics
community has accelerated focus on the recognition, establishment,
and adoption of nursing data standards. A national symposium has
hosted leaders from across Canada to collaborate on strategic
advancement within practice domains (clinical practice,
administration, research, policy, and education) and to foster key
enabling industry partnerships. This collaborative work has energized
the informatics community and is inspiring a new generation of
informatics professionals to advocate for nursing data standards as
they navigate burgeoning digital health environments.
As digital health environments continue to evolve both in terms of
scope and complexity, calls for the inclusion of nursing data
standards in vendor systems have escalated in priority and urgency.
At the same time as this industry level activity is occurring, nursing
faculty are increasingly challenged to include informatics courses in
their curricula. It is worth noting that there is a lengthy history of
significant variance in the availability and scope of informatics
courses in both undergraduate and graduate healthcare programs.
History

Nursing informatics began to evolve

as nurses participated in the early
initiatives in hospital information
system adoption in various health
agencies across the nation. As these
systems improved, specialized
nursing components and even free-
standing nursing information
systems began to sprout up. Early
systems were primarily imported
from other countries, especially the
USA.
 By the late 1980s, most hospitals had at least a basic information
system that required nurses to enter common data such as
admission profiles and basic care requirements like diet,
medications, and treatments into a computer as part of their
routine duties.
 In 1998, the Canadian Nurses Association spearheaded another
initiative, the National Nursing Informatics Project, to begin to
develop a national consensus on definition, competencies, and
educational strategies and priorities in nursing informatics
development.
 In 2001, founded by Dr. Lynn Nagle, a new nursing association
emerged dedicated to NI, called the Canadian Nursing
Informatics Association (CNIA). The CNIA is a special interest
group representing the voice for Nursing Informatics in Canada.
 In May 2002, the CNIA secured funding from the federal agency,
Office of Health Information Highway (OHIH) to undertake a
national study of Canadian Schools of Nursing. This study was
directed to deriving a better understanding of the informatics
education being provided to the nurses in basic education
programs across the country.
 In the fall of 2004, CNIA launched "Nursing Informatics Rounds"
online. The topics are varied but focus primarily on the case
illustration of interests to administrators, educators and
practitioners. These sessions are designed to demonstrate the
impact and relevance of the Informatics to the Canadian nurses.
 In 2006, a peer- reviewed journal, The Canadian Journal of
Nursing Informatics, was launched. It gives nurses a platform to
disseminate Canadian research relating to nursing informatics.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) also plays a
unique and crucial role in the development of this new Canadian
health information system. CIHI has described its' role as:
 Setting National standards for financial, statistical, and clinical
data
 Setting National standards for health information technology,
 Collecting, processing, and maintaining health related databases
and registries
Ontario

 eHealth Ontario is the agency tasked with facilitating the

development of Ontario's proposed public Electronic Health Record
system.
 Created on 2008
What is eHealth Ontario?
 eHealth Ontario built an electronic health record
system with networks to connect health organizations
and sole practitioners across the province and
repositories which securely store billions of records,
all anchored by solid security and identity
management programs.
It enables users to:
 Health care providers quickly access and share results of lab tests
and diagnostic imaging exams.
 Emergency room clinicians can check a database to make sure a
patient won’t have an allergic reaction to a medication.
 Patients are receiving better follow up care when they leave a
hospital, since their discharge summaries are shared instantly with
their entire health care teams.
 And, patients are being transitioned faster to other providers in
their communities.
Nova Scotia

 Nursing informatics in Nova Scotia was Established in 1995, the

Nova Scotia Nursing Informatics Group (NSNIG) is a professional
practice group, affiliated with the College of Registered Nurses of
Nova Scotia .
 They Vision is to promote the awareness of, and support for, the
advancement of nursing informatics education and practice in
Nova Scotia. And Mission is to promote and develop the
advancement of Nursing Informatics in Nova Scotia.
The Goals in nursing informatics resource:
 Promote informatics education for health care professionals
 Create networking opportunities at provincial, national and
international levels.

And they Objective is:

 Serve as a resource on Informatics.
 Provide an Informatics educational forum for the membership.
 Network with Informatics professionals at the provincial, national
and international level.
 Promote Informatics education at the nursing undergraduate level.
Victoria, BC

 In 1983, the University of Victoria, Canada, began to

offer a four-year Bachelor of Science degree program
in health information science, using a mandatory
cooperative education model. Students are admitted
offer one year of university-based studies at a “better
than pass” level. In addition to clinical, sociological,
epidemiological, administrative, judicial, and
economic perspectives of health information, the
program includes a significant information technology
component. Prior health professional qualifications
are not required.
Saskatchewan
 Nursing informatics in Saskatchewan is jurisdictional
voice for nursing informatics. It provides leadership for
nurses, provides education, information, and support to
colleagues to foster research in the digital health space.
The benefits are multi – focal: provision of accurate,
timely feedback for students, time conservation for
faculty to produce anecdotal notes individualized to
each student learner, and new technology
enhancement for the continue learning .
Alberta
 Connect Care is the bridge between information, healthcare
teams, patients – and the future. Through a common provincial
clinical information system, Connect Care will enable consistent
practices across Alberta and will improve the care provided for
patients and their families.
 The whole healthcare team, including patients, will
have the best possible information throughout the
care journey. Healthcare will be improved for both
patients and healthcare providers.
 Connect Care is a unique opportunity for Alberta Health Services
(AHS), and their partners, to change how they work together to
provide care to patients.

 Connect Care is a key Alberta Health Services (AHS) initiative that

will transform how they deliver care by using a single stop, health
information network –. Essentially, it’s a common provincial clinical
information system (CIS). Think of it as a bridge between
information, healthcare teams, patients – and the future, which
will enable consistent practices and sharing of patient information
and treatment across Alberta, effectively improving the care
provided for all.
Canada's Latest Medical Trends
Vancouver, BC
Microdermics micro-needle
 What they do: Microdermics’ micro-needle injection system is a low-
cost, pain-free alternative to the hypodermic needle and syringe.
 Why they do it: The first hypodermic needle fine enough to pierce
the skin was invented in 1853 and hasn’t improved much in 160
years. Millions of people suffer from needle phobia. Millions more
suffer needle stick injuries every year, which risks transmission of
infectious diseases such as HIV or hepatitis. Because of that risk,
injections must be administered by health- care professionals,
limiting access and increasing the cost. And there is no biological
benefit to administering vaccines or biologics into the muscle as
hypodermic needles do.
 How they do it: The micro-needle injects just under the skin.
The projections are less than one millimetre long – deep enough
to deliver but without pain. They are not deep enough to risk
hitting nerves or blood vessels, meaning anyone with basic skills
can administer, akin to diabetics injecting insulin.
Surrey, BC
Adaptive Cooling Wear, Kwantlen Polytechnic University design
school
 What they do: Cooling vests for elite athletes with cervical
spine injuries.
 Why they do it: Athletes with quadriplegia often have an
impaired ability to regulate their body temperature. The buildup
of body heat not only impairs their performance but can lead to
heat-induced illness. At its worst, it can be life-threatening.
 How they do it: In 2015, Melissa Lacroix, a sports physiologist at the
Canadian Sport Institute, brought the problem to Kwantlen
Polytechnic University’s Wilson School of Design. Design students
then spoke to members of the Canadian national wheelchair rugby
team, who were all too familiar with the problem, and all too aware
that the solutions designed for able-bodied athletes don’t always
work for them. The cooling vests designed at Kwantlen use a phase-
change material, which is similar to ice, to conduct heat away from
the body. It provides a similar function to sweating and circulating
blood to the extremities, but in a wearable vest the athletes don’t
whenever necessary. The vests have been used by the Canadian
national wheelchair rugby team and by Canadian athletes at the Rio
Paralympic Games. The team hopes to see the vests in use at the 2019
Parapan Am Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Ottawa
 Physicians and physicists at The Ottawa Hospital are preparing to
use 3-D virtual reality technology in the operating room to assist
with surgical implants for patients suffering from Parkinson’s
disease. Researchers at the hospital are at the forefront of
developing virtual reality technology for medical purposes, and
they’ve now teamed up with neurosurgeons to improve the
placement of devices during delicate brain procedures. Wearing
virtual reality goggles, neurosurgeon Dr. Adam Sachs can view an
accurate, computer-generated 3-D image of a patient’s brain with
Parkinson’s disease, created using the patient’s own MRIs. The
patients’ brain activity, recorded from microelectrodes, can also be
visualized in this virtual world.
Cyberknife
 Cyberknife, a radiosurgery treatment for tumors in brain and
other organs revolutionized outcome for patients. The Ottawa
Hospital’s CyberKnife is only one of three in Canadian hospitals.
This procedure is a painless, non-invasive treatment that delivers
high doses of precisely targeted radiation to destroy tumors or
lesions within the body. It uses a robotic arm to deliver highly
focused beams of radiation. The flexibility of the robotic arm
makes it possible to treat areas of the body, such as the spine
and spinal cord, that can't be treated by other radiosurgery
techniques.
Toronto, ON
GeneYouIn
 A “personalized medicine company”, GeneYouIn has developed a
DNA testing service that allows physicians to predict a medication’s
efficacy on a specific patient and thereby make a further informed
prescribing choice. PillCheck, their decision support system,
interprets each individual’s gene variations responsibility for drug
absorption and metabolism and recommends medication.
Outsourcing such testing can minimize barriers for smaller practices
offering such a personalized level of care. Integration into larger
provider systems can reduce costs associated with malpractice or
improper subscribing.
What is Pillcheck?
 Variations in your DNA determine the way you process medications
—whether you will benefit from taking a medication, or if it may
potentially cause negative side effects. Pharmacogenetics (PGx) is
the study of inherited genetic makeup that affects your response to
medications. Pillcheck identifies these variations to assess whether
a medication is likely to be safe and effective and provides optimal
dosage recommendations. The Pillcheck service includes the drug
response test, a personalized report, and a pharmacist’s letter. Your
report will list your body’s predicted response to all Pillcheck-
covered medications and can be regularly updated.
Sample of Test Report