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eases will be precisely diagnosed based on the integration of all relevant patient data and insights at the point of decision.

Susan Dentzer, CEO of America’s Physician Groups, has observed that “medicine can now look to piles of data to identify what molecular or genetic signatures lie underneath a person’s condition or constellation of symptoms.” By way of example, she notes there is now an increasing suspicion that type 2 diabetes is not one type of disease, but rather a collection of different subtypes. Information like this allows doctors to address different subtypes in specific ways thereby improving the effectiveness of treatment, reducing costs, and avoiding complications.

Innovative approaches to personalized healthcare are essential for laying the groundwork for the medical revolution of the future. A key element of this medical revolution will be greatly enhanced predictive analytics, deployed to identify risk of disease onset or progression, making earlier intervention possible and perhaps preventing some diseases from progressing.

from 25 percent in 2019; and 55 percent are exchanging laboratory and diagnostic test results, up from 36 percent in 2019.

• Compared with the CMWF average, fewer Canadian primary care practices can communicate electronically with other practices, even though most (76 percent) have access to regional, provincial or territorial information systems.

• More practices now offer patients op-

The success of new initiatives like the Nunavut NP program and the growth trends demonstrated through the CMWF survey reflect the positive impact of focused efforts to increase technology adoption. Although they bring Canada more in line with its international peers, there are likely further gains that need to be made to fully integrate virtual services as part of Canada’s health systems beyond the pandemic.

Please visit www.cihi.ca/en/virtualcare-in-canada for additional information on virtual care services across Canada.

Alya Niang is a Communications Specialist, Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Soon, a stronger focus on personalized medicine will also make it possible to accurately identify disease subtypes to determine which drugs work best for each. We envision a future in which it will be possible to identify optimal therapeutics based on an individual’s phenotype, disease subtype, or tumor signature, and where we will be able to uncover new uses for existing compounds, drugs, and medicines.

We believe this future is within reach, and that effective collaboration between healthcare policy makers and those on the front lines of research and technological innovation can help to make it a reality.

This piece was adapted from an article originally published in the Harvard Business Review titled “Expanding Precision Medicine: The Path to Higher Value Care.” It was sponsored by Siemens Healthineers.