Care at Scale: A CCI Policy Report on Public Buying, Data and Better Health Care for Canadians

Canada’s health care system is one of our country’s defining achievements. But it is under strain, and too many patients still experience fragmented care, long waits, and gaps between services that should work together.

Care at Scale is a CCI policy report that sets out a practical blueprint to modernize health care delivery by using public buying power more effectively and strengthening how health data supports care.

“Canada spends billions through public procurement every year, yet too often those dollars reinforce outdated processes instead of scaling solutions that improve care,” said CCI Chief Executive Officer Patrick Searle. “If provinces and health authorities buy smarter and prioritize interoperability, Canada can deliver better outcomes for patients while building a stronger domestic health technology sector.”

The report outlines how governments and health system leaders can move from pilots to province-wide adoption, so proven technologies do not get stuck in procurement bottlenecks or siloed data environments.

“Canada already has world-class innovators ready to help fix real problems inside the system,” said CCI Vice President of Policy and Advocacy Laurent Carbonneau, the report’s lead author. “Care at Scale focuses on the execution tools: how to buy, how to evaluate, how to share data responsibly, and how to scale what works across the country.”

CCI recommends six actions to help Canada deliver better care at scale:

1. Strengthen Canada’s digital health ecosystem by applying Buy Canadian policies and evaluating procurement bids based on total public value rather than lowest upfront cost alone.
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2. Ensure successful digital health innovations can scale by establishing clear and predictable pathways from pilot projects to procurement contracts.
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3. Create a national market for digital health by enabling provinces and health authorities to buy in to existing competitive procurement outcomes under common requirements.
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4. Ensure procurement decisions reflect the system-wide benefits and efficacy gains delivered by digital health investments by better accounting for value in procurement bids.
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5. Enable more competition and drive the development and simplified adoption of new digital health products by adopting international standards for data portability and interoperability.
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6. Unlock the power of data in the health sector by providing domestic firms aggregated, de-personalized health data to leverage for digital solutions.

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Download a full PDF of the report HERE.
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CCI Vice President of Policy and Advocacy Laurent Carbonneau unpacked the report alongside Skaidra Puodziunas, CCI’s Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, in conversation with Canadian health tech leaders Mike Cook (IDENTOS), Todd Foote (Fonemed), Shane Sabatino (WELL Health), and Dr. Andrew Bond (Green Shield).

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About the Council of Canadian Innovators

The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) represents more than 180 of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies. Founded in 2015, CCI advocates for policies that help Canadian innovators scale globally, create prosperity at home, and strengthen Canada’s economic sovereignty.