The federal government has announced $11.7 million in funding for a new chronic disease surveillance project to be implemented over the next five years. The Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network will help family doctors better manage chronic disease among their patients by giving them access to information from a new national network collecting electronic medical records.
The network will collect information about five chronic conditions: depression, diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Approximately 140 doctors in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador have already agreed to participate in the initiative and will provide patient information for the network during the two-year pilot phase of the project, which has expanded across Canada. The project aims to have the participation of 1,000 family doctors by 2015 so that physicians, researchers and policy-makers can better understand the prevalence and progression of chronic disease in Canada. Australia, the United Kingdom and some European countries already have similar networks, and the United States has shown interest in the Canadian project.
For more information, visit the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network website at www.cpcssn.ca. See also the news release, “Announcement of New National Health Research Network: First Pan-Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance Network Gives Family Doctors New Insight into Patient Health and Care,” Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network, October 14, 2010, available at www.cpcssn.ca.