Canada Invests in Patient-Oriented Database

The Canadian government announced a $60 million, seven-year plan to build a massive health database that backers hope will help the country come to grips with its opioid crisis.

The government’s calling it the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research data platform and wants it to be a single portal for researchers to access administrative, clinical and social health records from around the country.

“Up to now, accessing and using multi-jurisdictional data has been a challenge because of differences in the requirements for requesting and accessing data and in the data themselves.” Canada’s Ministry of Health said.

Like the U.S., Canada is reeling from the effects of opioid addiction. The crisis is especially pronounced in British Columbia, where 1,155 Canadians died of overdoses in the last quarter of last year.