Canadian Institute For Health Information - Historical Overview

Historical Overview

CIHI was incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act in 1994. Federal, provincial, and territorial governments created CIHI as a “not-for-profit, independent organization dedicated to forging a common approach to Canadian health information”. CIHI has a unique mandate to make health information “publically available” to Canadians.

The Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada (Romanow Report) tabled a final report to the House of Commons on 28 November 2002 that recommended that a Health Council of Canada should be established by the provincial, territorial and federal governments to facilitate co-operation and provide national leadership in achieving the superior health outcomes. The Health Council would be built on the existing infrastructure of the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Canadian Coordinating Office of Health Technology Assessment (CCOHTA).

The following year, in November 2003, the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, released a report (the Senator "Kirby" report) that emphasized the need for "cooperation among all stakeholders to reduce problems of maldistribution, undersupply, and jurisdictional competition" within the Canadian healthcare system. The report also recommend the federal government to "work with other concerned parties to create a permanent national coordinating body for HHR, to be composed of representatives from key stakeholder groups and the different levels of government". CIHI co-authored a report to this standing senate committee with Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) entitled Charting the Course – A Pan-Canadian Consultation on Population and Public Health Priorities, May 2002. An outcome of the final senate report was CIHI's creation of the #Health Personnel Database with funding by #Health Canada.

CIHI's core mandate is to:

• Provide insight into the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care system in Canada with respects to the populations needs.
• Connect the performance of the health care system to the actual outcomes.
• Help decision and policy makers assess the changes in policies, practices and processes and their impacts within the health care system.