This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here . When you see a specialist or get test results, it might be tempting to think that, somewhere, a medical professional is connecting the dots.
But a new report by an Alberta group found that sharing health information between professionals is often fragmented in Canada — increasing the likelihood of medical errors and harm, the report suggests. "In most places in Canada, health information does not flow digitally from one clinic or hospital or health authority to another," said Dr. Ewan Affleck, the report's lead author and a family doctor who works in Edmonton and Northwest Territories.
"It just simply stops." This means that when a patient is referred to an orthopedic surgeon by their family doctor, for example, the specialist may not have access to prior X-rays or a record of the patient's worsening knee pain. Something similar happened to mechanical engineer Greg Price, who at just 31 died in 2012 following complications of testicular cancer surgery — a procedure that was delayed because his medical information wasn't shared efficiently.
Greg Price was 31 years old when the pilot, engineer, baseball player and uncle died of complications following testicular cancer surgery. (Price family) Affleck called Price's case — the subject of a 2013 report and 2018 s.
