Why it is urgent that Ontario share health data with Ottawa

Posted on October 27, 2024 in Health Policy Context

Source: — Authors: ,

TheStar.com – Opinion/Contributors
Oct. 25, 2024.   By Iris Gorfinkel and David Fisman, Contributors

“The failure to collaborate across Canada … prevented the formation of a national vaccine registry. Knowing who was vaccinated, when and where, is critical for patients, clinicians and health systems,” write Iris Gorfinkel and David Fisman.

Ontario has been hoarding health data. We’re not alone in this — every province and territory closely guard their residents’ health from the federal public health agency to varying degrees, but what’s done in the name of protecting individual privacy comes at the cost of blinding the Public Health Agency of Canada to a fuller understanding of the health of Canadians.

Not knowing the “who, when and where” of COVID-19 creates catastrophic gaps in data. Timely and accurate data inform sound public health policies. Their absence does the opposite, including leaving risk management to the most vulnerable. Masking is left up to them, even in high-risk health care settings, including chronic care facilities, hospitals and primary care clinics.

The latest consequence of such “data-hugging” is the announcement that Canada’s Infobase would no longer report deaths and hospitalizations due to COVID-19.   What was Canada’s third-leading cause of death in 2022 is now lumped together with other viruses on a “respiratory virus detections” dashboard. It’s a change that carries an implicit but misleading message — that COVID is “just another flu.” It’s not. It’s a potentially chronic, multi-system disease affecting nerves, blood vessels, the brain and heart.

Much before this, the lack of national collaboration resulted in the closure of Canada’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Tracker. It’s what had made clear that nearly half of Canada’s COVID deaths were taking place in long-term care homes, something easily seen within a few months after the start of the pandemic. Understanding that link was made possible by the provinces and territories willingness to supply accurate, timely data.

When this critical tracker came to a halt in July 2022, its website didn’t mince words. It “was not because the threat to LTC homes had ended, but rather because many of Canada’s provincial and territorial government … were no longer providing enough reliable, timely data.” Vital health information was withheld in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.

The failure to collaborate across Canada also prevented the formation of a national vaccine registry. Knowing who was vaccinated, when and where, is critical for patients, clinicians and health systems. Even so, the provinces and territories stubbornly fail to share even this data, preventing Public Health Agency of Canada from fulfilling its mission statement “to prevent and control infectious diseases.”

The result? Public Health Agency of Canada is less able to monitor the safety and efficacy of vaccines in Canada’s unique populations. It also makes it tougher for Canadians to know what vaccines they’ve had.

Granted, concerns about individual privacy are necessary, but individual data are easily de-identified. It’s not difficult to omit names and addresses but keep genders, ages (without birth dates) and partial postal codes. It’s also what data-hungry Canadians want. Nearly 4-in-5 Canadians polled in 2022 supported sharing their de-identified COVID-19 health data.

Making matters worse, Ontario recently advised their clinicians to switch to a “test-to-treat” strategy. This limits testing to those who qualify for treatment, a questionable “guideline” that prevents sick patients from knowing what’s ailing them and greatly limits Public Health Agency of Canada’s ability to monitor the spread of COVID-19. This head-in-the-sand approach will raise transmission, increase infections and further erode the agency’s ability to safeguard the health of Canadians.

Politicians understandably want COVID-19 to go away. So does an exhausted public. But wishful thinking shouldn’t drive public health. Under-reporting undermines preventives like vaccines and masking. It also lessens the perceived urgency to install ventilation and air filtration systems that could make schools, work places and health care settings more resistant to the spread of SARS CoV-2, cold and flu viruses.

The provinces and territories need to share health data with Canada’s Public Health Agency. It’s time to strip the blindfold off and enable PHAC to do its job. Public health data is generated at the expense — and for the benefit — of Canadians. Data hoarding for political gain invites illness and death, constrains research and ensures that mistakes will be repeated.

But ultimately, it’s the most vulnerable — and their loved ones — who pay the cost when the provinces and territories refuse to collaborate on health data.

Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/why-it-is-urgent-that-ontario-share-health-data-with-ottawa/article_53fc5c50-9176-11ef-bf2c-673e1da66e0d.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a05&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=top_4492

Tags: , , , ,

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 27th, 2024 at 11:25 am and is filed under Health Policy Context. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply