Data Standards

Developing and implementing accurate national standards for Canadian health care information

CIHI’s data standards make a positive impact on health care data and are used in each of CIHI’s data holdings. Working with our stakeholders, we take a lead role in developing and implementing national standards to enhance the consistency and accuracy of Canadian health care information. For example,

We developed and released a pan-Canadian content standard for primary health care electronic medical records, working with jurisdictions and Canada Health Infoway.
We are collaborating with coroners and medical examiners on guidelines for investigating and reporting drug-related deaths.
We developed our Acute and Ambulatory Care Data Content Standard, which will increase the collection of structured, comparable data at the point of care, enabling interventions that improve clinical outcomes and reduce costs.
We developed the Definitions and Guidelines to Support Alternate Level of Care Designation in Acute Inpatient Care in collaboration with system leaders and selected health regions in Western Canada.

MIS Standards

The Standards for Management Information Systems in Canadian Health Service Organizations (MIS Standards) provides an integrated approach to managing financial and statistical data related to the operations of Canadian health service organizations. It was developed in recognition of the need to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of health service organizations in Canada through better information and measures of productivity.

The MIS Standards addresses information at the levels of a functional centre and service recipient. It does not encompass information related to the care, treatment or clinical status of the service recipient, nor does it attempt to quantify or assess the quality of such services.

CIHI Reference Data Model

The CIHI Reference Data Model (CRDM) is a high-level, corporate-wide data architecture standard. The goal of the CRDM is to facilitate data integration across CIHI by having common terminology and meaning. To access the CRDM Toolkit, email crdm@cihi.ca.

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Data standards by data holding

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Data holding	Title	Year	Description
	Guidance on the Use of Standards for Race-Based and Indigenous Identity Data Collection and Health Reporting in Canada	2022	This document provides pan-Canadian minimum standards for collecting race-based and Indigenous identity data in health care, along with guidance on the safe and appropriate use of the data.
	Changes to v2022 Coding Standards	2021	Take a look at a list of proposed amendments to the Canadian Coding Standards for ICD-10-CA and CCI received (as of September 2021), which are identified by chapter and coding standard.
	Integrated Accessibility Standards Multi-Year Workplan	2021	This multi-year plan outlines CIHI’s strategy to prevent and remove barriers and to meet its requirements under Ontario’s accessibility regulations.
CMDB	Management Information System Standards 2016	2016–2021	MIS Standards for 2016, including accounting principles and procedures, a national chart of accounts, statistical data collection, patient costing and cost allocation methods.