Advancing electronic health records in Canada: why, how and key learnings of potential value to China

Countries across this world are taking many and varied approaches to incorporating information and communications technologies into their health care systems. Accordingly, a great deal can be learned from each other, despite notable differences in such widely variable factors as geography, population density, culture, and nature of health care provision. This paper discusses differences and similarities in health information challenges in China and Canada, focuses on the electronic health record as the core component of the health infostructure, briefly highlights Canadian activities to date and concludes with considerations around potential key learnings for China.