Short-term data priorities to support the COVID-19 response
COVID-19 highlighted challenges with collecting, sharing and using health data and evidence in Canada. In response, we've been working with the provinces and territories since the fall of 2020 to co-develop the pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy (pCHDS). The pCHDS supports the creation, exchange and use of critical health data to benefit people and health systems in Canada.
Our goal is to ensure that there is useful and timely data to help monitor health, make decisions and respond to the pandemic. The table below summarizes a set of short-term priorities to address key knowledge and data gaps.
| Priority Area | Priority | What We've Done |
|---|---|---|
| Critical data | Improve national data on COVID-19 cases | Set up weekly, monthly and quarterly reporting on COVID-19 cases and health system use (such as emergency room visits, hospitalizations, ICU use, long-term care and health care workers) |
| Improve hospital data | ||
| Improve community and long-term care data | ||
| Improve lab testing capacity and data for COVID-19 | Increased lab testing capacity to 200,000 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests per day nationally Reported data on variants of concern (VOC) along with COVID-19 case data |
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| Improve the collection of public health information on travellers to Canada | Created ArriveCAN application to capture key public health information on travellers
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| Vaccines | Acquire data on vaccine safety, coverage and effectiveness | Increased reporting of vaccine coverage and safety data Published weekly data reports on vaccine doses administered and adverse events |
| Data and Knowledge Exchange | Launch a COVID-19 data portal | Launched a COVID-19 data portal Developed a new cloud environment for efficient and timely reporting of case and vaccination data |
| Share best practices for data and analytics | Created forums for provinces and territories to share best practices and innovations in COVID-19 data management Held a special session on best practices for race-based data collection and use |
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| Priority Populations | Enhance data on the impact of COVID-19 on health care workers | Developed numerous information products to fill key knowledge gaps. These are available in the COVID-19 health data and evidence virtual library:
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| Enhance data on the impact of COVID-19 on racialized populations | ||
| Enhance data on the impact of COVID-19 on First Nations, Inuit and Metis populations | ||
| Health Systems | Learn more about COVID-19 impacts on health systems | |
| Wider Health Impacts | Learn more about the wider public health impacts of COVID-19 |
To access information products that address these short-term COVID-19 data priorities, visit the COVID-19 health data and evidence virtual library.
To learn more about the long-term strategy, refer to Moving Forward on a Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy.
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