Relationship to Other Specifications

pan-Canadian Patient Summary Interoperability Specifications (PS-CA)

In parallel with CA:FeX, Canada Health Infoway is also facilitating a national collaborative effort to develop the pan-Canadian Patient Summary Interoperability Specifications (PS-CA), an implementable, testable specification, based on the IHE International Patient Summary specification and the HL7 IPS Implementation Guide. The PS-CA references the CA:FeX Interoperability Specifications as an optional implementation pattern for submitting, searching and retrieving a Patient Summary document.

Leveraged Specifications

At present, CA:FeX is based on FHIR R4. In addition, CA:FeX also references, analyzes, and makes use of content from the following international and US-based specifications to ensure there is an opportunity for Digital Health systems (along with vendors) to adapt to Canadian requirements:

• US Core
• IPA
• IPS
• IHE QEDm
• Mobile access to Health Documents (MHD)
• SMART on FHIR

Symbiotic Specifications

There are other IHE Profiles and pan-Canadian Interoperability Specifications that address critical interoperability issues such as user authorization (e.g., IUA), security node and audit records (e.g., ATNA), consistent time (e.g., CT), terminology (e.g., SVCM), document transformation/formatting (e.g. CA:FMT) and more.

While the profiles below are currently optional and are not true dependencies to implement CA:FeX, they outline fundamental requirements and patterns for implementing authentication, auditing and security within an enterprise architecture. Implementations that meet these standards are more predictable participants and exchange partners in the interoperability landscape.

IHE Profiles, Specifications and Canadian Implementation Guidance on Foundational Profiles includes:

• Audit Trail and Node Authentication (ATNA)
  • Canadian Network Security (CA:Sec) Implementation Guidance
  • Canadian Audit Trail (CA:Aud) Implementation Guidance
• Internet User Authorization Profile (IUA)
  • Canadian IUA Implementation Guidance
• Consistent Time (CT)
  • Canadian CT Implementation Guidance
• Sharing Valuesets, Codes and Maps (SVCM)
• Canadian Formatting Service (CA:FMT)

IHE Profiles, Specifications and Canadian Implementation Guidance on Patient Identity includes:

• Patient Master Identity Registry (PMIR)
• Patient Identifier Cross-reference for Mobile (PIXm)
• Patient Demographics Query for Mobile (PDQm)