[CMAJ, 9 December 2024]

Key Points:

• In Canada, patient health data are held by many organizations in different databases that are not currently interoperable.

• Interoperability means that authorized users, including patients, health care providers, and researchers, can access all relevant data across all databases, which is important for high-quality care and assessing health system performance.

• Patient access to their entire electronic medical records, provider access to a patient’s entire electronic medical record, and analyst access to data needed for assessment of health care quality are 3 valid, focused, and sentinel indicators of interoperability.