Published April 2026 by Canadian Healthcare Technology magazine.
Authors: Dr. Chandi Chandrasena, Simon Ling, Dr. Reza Talebi, Dr. Abbas Zavar, OntarioMD
In our first article of this four-part series on the keys to developing a digitally optimized medical practice, we introduced the EMPOWERED pillar – the importance of people as the starting point for a clinic's digital optimization. An empowered team is the foundation for any successful transformation. Yet even the most digital-ready team can become stagnant if not met with system readiness.
This is where the next pillar – CONNECTED – becomes essential. It channels human readiness into an interoperable environment where information moves with patients and care teams, instead of confined to one system. It reinforces a clinic's digital capability with the infrastructure, standards, and shared accountability to support healthcare continuity and coordination across settings.
Connectivity is the limiting factor
Across Canada, primary care teams experience the same pain points: fragmented workflows, hard-to-find hospital reports, duplicate tests due to missing results, and manually replicating information from documents into EMRs. These are more than annoyances; lack of interoperability is a hindrance to quality and capacity. OntarioMD (OMD) research, including a 2024 survey on the impact of health information technology (HIT) on physician burnout, bear this out, identifying manual referrals, numerous forms, and limited EMR integration as key contributors to administrative burden and risk to patient safety.
Fundamentally, interoperability is a health system issue and must be solved as one. Thankfully, many initiatives are underway, including:
Bill S-5, the Connected Care for Canadians Act, (formerly Bill C-72) aims to modernize the healthcare system by prohibiting "data blocking" by HIT vendors and ensuring HIT systems are interoperable.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and Canada Health Infoway (through its Shared Pan-Canadian Interoperability Roadmap) are advocating for greater connected care with standardized data and modernized information exchange.
The Digital Health Information Exchange (DHIEX) framework allows Ontario Health to define, enforce, and manage technical standards, including interoperability and related specifications for sharing health information, with the Ontario Patient Summary as its first venture.
The Digital Health Interoperability Task Force (DHITF) submitted parliamentary recommendations in February 2026 to unlock connected care for easier access, use, and exchange of information across health systems in Canada, underscoring the importance of interoperability national standards and policy levers yielding improvements for clinics and patients.
For clinics, it may be overwhelming as to actions they can take to facilitate connectivity. For vendors and health system partners, it is a clear signal: the future is standards-based, with data that flows securely across care settings in ways that strengthen team-based care, reduce burden, and create capacity at the point of care – if developed with end users in mind.
Characteristics of a "connected" clinic
Interoperability is rightly being tackled as a national and provincial priority. Governments are advancing standards, health systems are investing in shared infrastructure, and vendors are aligning with common frameworks. This macro level work is essential, but clinics do not have to sit idly by.
A truly connected clinic prepares itself in parallel with optimization efforts. Interoperability may be built at the system level, but readiness begins at the point of care. Clinics can begin strengthening data quality, structure, and workflows, so that when the infrastructure is ready, they are too. To this end, we must focus on data quality today to have meaningful interoperability tomorrow. So, what can clinics do now to facilitate interoperability and build connectedness?
Shift the documentation lens. Clinical notes are part of a shared patient record across care settings. A connected clinic must write with others in mind, using structured data fields properly, and applying standardized coding and terminology where appropriate. For example, completing the Cumulative Patient Profile (CPP) accurately rather than relying on free text helps improve data quality, support information sharing, and strengthen interoperability readiness.
Consider seamless exchanges. Clinics should prioritize tools that align with interoperability standards to ensure seamless data exchange and quality improvement, such as EMRs able to exchange structured data and relevant narrative notes with other EMRs, hospitals, regional and provincial repositories.
Modernize care transitions. Adopt eReferral and eConsult to reduce delays in care, duplicate work, and missed follow-ups while improving the quality and reliability of information shared amongst clinicians.
Leverage remote monitoring. Remote patient monitoring and wearables can deliver timely, clinically relevant information directly into patient records. When assessed and implemented thoughtfully, these tools support outreach and preventive care without adding administrative burden to clinical teams.
Promote shared analytics for proactive care. Shared dashboards provide clinical teams with greater insight and coordination of preventive care (for example, identifying diabetic patients overdue for A1C testing or tracking recently discharged heart failure patients), at the clinic and regional levels (for example, within Ontario Health Teams) supporting population health management.
While the goal of connectedness is improving interoperability and data quality for the broader healthcare system, it is crucial to do so without additional burden or cost for clinics, clinicians, and staff by incorporating resource planning and change management from the start. Even the most advanced technology will fail or, at best, achieve limited impact without a clear, shared understanding of its adoption, long-term sustainability, and training and skills development. Through its Peer Leaders and Advisory Service Team, OMD is at the forefront, delivering change management support in adopting digital health tools.
AI can play a key role as system-level interoperability evolves. It can help clean and standardize EMR data, translate information into correct structured fields, and support projects like the Ontario Patient Summary. AI tools, such as scribes, can capture and organize clinical notes and enhance data consistency, facilitating information across systems.
For clinical teams, being 'connected' should involve fewer manual reconciliations, less surprises, and more access to information related to patient care. For patients of a connected clinic, they need only tell their story once; care should be a continuum, with the right information reaching the right team at the right time.
So, what can vendors and health system leaders do to facilitate connectivity?
Align to standards. Designing tools to meet DHIEX and pan-Canadian specifications is more than just checking off a box in a compliance checklist. Employing a standards-based design allows products to plug into real-world clinic workflows without creating ad hoc customized workarounds.
Co-design to deliver seamless care. Connectivity should be built around the patient care journey and real clinical tasks (for example, referrals, recalls, and inbox triage), not abstract data flows. Maintaining a "people–process–technology" perspective ensures interoperability reduces burden, supports care delivery, and aligns with how clinicians work.
Create a digital playbook: Assess connectivity gaps to create tailored digital playbooks for clinics as actionable roadmaps to reduce implementation barriers and avoid pitfalls. Using a maturity model framework, establish a health system level service to facilitate their modernization efforts, including interoperability improvements, in a structured and scalable manner.
In the third of our four-part series, we will explore the third pillar, Streamlined, and how the combination of empowered teams and connected data can help with daily tasks, reclaim clinical time, and facilitate seamless care.