With rising healthcare costs and spending [1], there is an urgent need for the federal government to support innovative solutions to increase care efficiency, quality of health services, and government accountability. Canada could make available more and better quality information to its citizens to support them in participating more fully in both their own health care and in the quality and design of health services.
In the US, for example, the Blue Button initiative [2] enables patients to view online and download their own personal health records and facilitate dialogue among health care providers, caregivers, and other trusted individuals or entities.
The government can also learn from NESTA in the UK, whose People Powered Health [3] program builds on the concept of co-production [4] to design and deliver innovative services for people living with long term health conditions.
1. http://www.cihi.ca/CIHI-ext- portal/internet/EN/subtheme/spending+and+health+workforce/spending/cihi015954
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Button
3. http://www.nesta.org.uk/project/people-powered-health
4. http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/co-production-right-here-right-now