Survey on the Use of Digital Technologies by Health Care Providers, 2025
Released: 2026-03-30
Use of digital health systems to send or share patient information electronically: Results from the 2025 Survey on the Use of Digital Technologies by Health Care Providers
The 2025 Survey on the Use of Digital Technologies by Health Care Providers (SUDTHCP) found that just over 9 in 10 Canadian health care providers (92%) had access to a digital health system in 2024, and over half (52%) reported using a digital health system to send or share patient clinical information electronically with other health care providers outside of their main practice setting. Improved access to and use of digital health systems can lead to more effective, higher-quality health care by improving coordination of care among health care providers across different practice settings. For the 2025 cycle of the SUDTHCP, data were collected from May 7 to July 27, 2025, and health care providers were asked about their experiences from January 1 to December 31, 2024. The SUDTHCP provides national data on access to digital health systems and usage patterns of these systems by Canadian health care providers. The survey supports Canada's Shared Health Priorities (SHP) indicators, developed collaboratively by federal, provincial and territorial governments, in partnership with the Canadian Institute for Health information, to ensure health care systems continue to respond to the needs of Canadians.
This release examines differences in access and use of digital health systems, by type of health care provider, practice setting, province and whether the practice setting is in a rural or urban area. It also examines barriers that limit health care providers' ability to send or share patient data using digital health systems. These findings can help inform efforts to improve access to digital health systems, supporting a more efficient approach to collaborative care.
Almost all health care providers have access to a digital health system at their primary practice setting
Health care providers' access to digital health systems is essential for timely information sharing and efficient care. In 2024, 97% of Canadian health care providers indicated having access to any form of patient clinical information, and of them, 92% reported having access to a digital health system. Access to digital health systems varied by provider type, by type of practice setting and across provinces (Table 1).
Among health care providers, access to a digital health system was lower among nurses (90%) and pharmacists (91%) than among family physicians (98%), nurse practitioners (97%) and physician specialists (97%). A smaller proportion of providers working in community practice settings reported having access (89%) compared with those working in hospital settings (94%). In all 10 Canadian provinces, a high proportion of providers had access to a digital health system. The proportion of providers reporting having this access was above the national average (92%) in Alberta (96%), Newfoundland and Labrador (96%) and British Columbia (95%).
Half of all health care providers use digital systems to send or share patient clinical information outside of their practice setting
The SHP indicator "Health Providers Who Share Patient Health Information Electronically" measures the proportion of health care providers who send or share patient clinical information to other providers using digital health systems outside of their main practice setting. This measure counts all providers as in scope, regardless of whether they had access to a digital health system or need to send or share information. Including providers who did not have access to a digital health system or need to send or share as in scope ensures the SHP indicator reflects overall health system capacity and readiness for electronic information exchange, capturing digital health system adoption and potential for coordinated care. In 2024, just over half (52%) of all health care providers who had access to any form of patient clinical information used a digital health system to send or share that information to providers outside of their main practice setting (Table 1). Higher proportions of family physicians (64%), specialists (62%) and nurse practitioners (61%) reported using digital health systems to send or share information in this way, compared with nurses (48%) and pharmacists (49%).
While access to digital health systems was consistently high among providers across all provinces, there were significant provincial differences in the proportion of health care providers using these systems to send or share patient information to providers outside their practice setting. Alberta (72%) had the highest proportion of providers sharing patient information through a digital health system, while Quebec (36%) had the lowest.
Among providers needing to share patient information, digital health system use is higher among nurses
To better understand digital health system adoption, additional analysis looked at digital health system use, but this time, excluding providers who reported not having access to a digital health system or not needing to share patient clinical information outside of their main practice setting.
Results by type of health care provider show that, in 2024, a higher proportion of nurses reported not needing to share patient clinical information (30%) compared with 10% or less for other providers (Table 2). Of providers who reported having access to a digital health system (excluding those who did not need to share patient clinical information in their role), nurses reported a higher proportion using digital health systems to share patient clinical information (77%), compared with specialists (71%), family physicians (69%) and pharmacists (60%) (Table 2). These observed differences across health care providers may reflect the specific nature and location of their work and the workflows digital health systems are designed for. Health Canada's 2025 national workforce study showed that nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians face varying workload pressures and practice patterns across settings, shaped by differences in role expectations and care demands.
Results from the SUDTHCP show that a higher proportion of health care providers practicing in hospitals reported not needing to send or share patient clinical information (30%) compared with those working in a community practice setting (12%). Looking at this by provider type, a significant difference was only observed among nurses working in a hospital (37%) compared with a community-based setting (18%).
Of health care providers who reported having access to a digital health system (excluding those who didn't need to send or share in their role), higher proportions of those in hospital settings reported using digital health systems to share patient clinical information (75%) compared with those in community-based settings (70%). This may be attributable to the fact that nurses make up a larger proportion of providers working in hospitals than in community-based settings and are less likely to report needing to share patient clinical information.
Nearly four out of five providers report at least one barrier limiting their use of digital health systems to share patient information
Barriers encountered by health care providers when using Canada's health information infrastructure can limit their ability to use clinical data more efficiently to coordinate care and improve outcomes. Health care providers were asked about barriers that either limited or prevented them from using a digital health system to send or share patient clinical information to other health care providers outside their practice setting. Health care providers who did not have access to a digital health system or who did not need to send or share patient information were not counted as in scope, to only capture barriers experienced by those using digital health systems. In 2024, almost four in five providers (78%) (Table 3) reported experiencing at least one barrier that either limited or prevented them from sharing patient information through a digital health system.
Among the different types of health care providers, the highest proportion who reported experiencing at least one barrier was nurse practitioners (85%), followed by family physicians (84%), specialists (82%), pharmacists (78%) and nurses (76%). Provincially, health care providers in Nova Scotia (85%) and Quebec (83%) were more likely to experience at least one barrier compared with the national average (78%), while providers in Alberta (70%) and New Brunswick (69%) were less likely. A higher proportion of providers working in rural-remote geographical areas reported experiencing barriers (85%) compared with those working in urban areas (78%).
Insufficient integration between different systems is the most reported barrier
In 2024, for those providers with access to a digital health system, the most frequently reported barrier to using a digital health system for sending and sharing patient information was "insufficient integration between different digital health systems" (50%) (Chart 1). This highlights issues of interoperability, in which systems have the functionality to transmit data externally but lack the compatibility to connect to, or interpret information from, other systems. The second most reported barrier was "digital health systems did not have the ability to send or share patient clinical information electronically to health care providers that work outside of my practice setting" (46%). This reflects a closed system which lacks the functionality to transmit information outside the practice setting. For example, a digital health system that only supports internal messages. The third most chosen barrier was "time-consuming or multiple sign-ins required to access digital health systems" (22%). This barrier reflects system inefficiencies around user design and functionality. Similar rankings were found across all types of providers, all types of practice settings and among those in urban and rural-remote areas.
Chart 1
Proportion of health care providers that selected each type of barrier that limits or prevents them from sharing patient clinical information outside their clinical setting using digital health systems in Canada, excluding territories
Note to readers
Collection of the 2025 Survey on the Use of Digital Technologies by Health Care Providers (SUDTHCP) took place from May 7 to July 27, 2025. The survey reference period for which participants were asked about their experiences was January 1 to December 31, 2024. The frame for the SUDTHCP is a person-level frame based on respondents to the 2021 Census of Population long-form questionnaire and augmented by the Postsecondary Student Information System. Data were collected in the 10 Canadian provinces. Due to health care provider sample size limitations, data were not collected in the territories. The survey collected information from 6,157 Canadian health care providers. The target population for the survey included health care providers living in the 10 provinces as of May 2024 under the following occupations as defined by the 2021 National Occupational Classification (NOC): General practitioners and family physicians (NOC code 31102), Nurse practitioners (31302), Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine (31100), Specialists in surgery (31101), Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses (31301), Nursing coordinators and supervisors (31300), Pharmacists (31120). For this analysis, Specialists in clinical and laboratory medicine (31100) and Specialists in surgery (31101) were merged into a single occupation category. The response rate for the 2025 SUDTHCP was 45.8%.
In support of the Shared Health Priorities, Statistics Canada is collecting data from 2025 to 2027 through the SUDTHCP to enable measuring and reporting on the following:
- Health Providers Who Share Patient Health Information Electronically,
- Health Providers Not Routinely Accessing Electronic Health Information From Other Settings Due to Barriers,
- Health Providers Who Perceive Digital Health Services as Useful for Patient Care.
Digital health systems are internal or external applications, platforms or software that allow for documenting and exchanging patient clinical information electronically. They can include electronic medical records, provincial or territorial electronic health records, hospital information systems, clinical information systems and pharmacy management systems, among others. For the purposes of this survey, digital health systems exclude faxes, electronic faxes, standard email, video conferencing platforms or telephones.
Main or primary practice setting is the specific health care facility where the health care provider worked the most hours.
Patient clinical information could include prescriptions, medication summaries, allergies and intolerances, immunizations, procedures or surgical history, medical devices, lab and diagnostic results and requisitions, referrals, vital signs and other types of clinical information.
Sending or sharing patient clinical information includes entering or updating patient clinical information in a system that allows access by health care providers, flagging or sending a notification that patient clinical information is available to health care providers, and sending or sharing patient clinical information through a digital health system via secure email or secure messaging.
All percentages are weighted to be representative of the Canadian population of health care providers, including during the survey period.
All estimates in this release are based on self-reported information and may be subject to recall bias.
For further information on the survey methodology, sampling, and variable definitions, please refer to the Survey on the Use of Digital Technologies by Health Care Providers information page.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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