Health Data Working Group
SHRF has been participating with the Saskatchewan Academic Health Sciences Network’s (SAHSN) Health Data Working Group since 2008, a multi-stakeholder group to address the need to improve the availability and use of health data for research, evaluation and quality improvement in health care.
In November 2010, SHRF hosted a Health Research Data Forum on behalf of the working group. The Forum focused on increasing understanding of how researchers and data stewards, such as the Ministry of Health and health region administrators, can work together to enhance use of administrative health data for answering important health care and policy questions. Participants explored the benefits and challenges of creating a more open approach to using health data. Presenters showcased best practices and successful models and also explained how data could be accessed following appropriate protocols that respect personal privacy and other ethical issues.
It was recognized that health data is a key public resource that can and should be used more effectively in generating improvements in health care. Electronic health records need to be developed and implemented in ways that support research and evaluation needs as well as clinical care support needs. The group’s recommendations are contained in the Forum report, below; these recommendations have been presented to the SAHSN board and all agencies who helped plan the Forum are committed to implementing and supporting the recommendations. The SAHSN Health Data Work Group continues to meet in order to support these efforts.
Forum presentations and the final report are available below:
- Health Data Forum final report
- Measuring. Learning, Improving Health Care together. Gary Teare , PhD
- A Discussion about Scientific Rigor using Administrative Health Care Data. Malcolm Doupe, PhD
- Ministry of Health Administrative Data & Research. Jacquie Messer-Lepage, Risk & Relationship Management Branch Winanne Downey, Population Health Branch Ministry of Health
- Defining and Validating Comorbidities for Risk Adjustment. Hude Quan, MD PhD
- Quality of Administrative Data for Chronic Disease Research and Surveillance. Lisa Lix, PhD P.Stat.
- Health Data Workshop Presentation:Health Data in Action. Josh Lawson, PhD
- [Movie link to appear here soon] Keynote address by Dr. Steven Lewis
