Thanks Smita for adding the information on what's currently captured in various CIHI data holdings. In addition, as mentioned previously, please also include the sex and gender standards recently published with the CIHI Reference Data Model toolkit.

Finnie

Hi Finnie,

Thanks so much for sharing the details!

I have revised the sheet with the updates provided by you and the details provided by PEI eHealth Clinician Operations.

Thanks again Francis for all the support! All the references provided by you have also now been available on the Reference tab (second tab on the sheet).

The Gender Harmony Project-Environmental Scan for Sex and Gender

Regards,
Smita

Hi Francis,

Thanks so much for the great suggestions!

This sheet is our first step to get the work started for the HL7 initiated Gender Harmony project. We as HL7 community members would need to work together to collect all the information and recommend what’s best for Canada.

I would be pleased to be the contact person to consolidate all the comments and suggestions at one place but look forward to everyone’s input /suggestions on how we could harmonize the gender and sex information.

Regards,
Smita

Hi Smita,

Thanks for sharing Environmental Scan. This is very helpful.

Regards,
Harsh

Hi Paul,

You should be able to access it now. Please let me know any issues.

Kind Regards,
Smita

Hi Smita, thanks for the great work done on putting together the spreadsheet of sex/gender definitions in different systems across jurisdictions. Here are some suggestions for you/everyone to consider:

1. I am not sure how far you want to go documenting existing systems. Every jurisdiction has a physician claims reimbursement system where docs submit claims and the billing records contain sex/gender code as part of the submission. As an example see the BC MSP teleplan submission specifications - https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/practitioner-pro/medical-services-plan/teleplan-v4-4.pdf

2. Similarly, many provinces have some health policy/services research centres with copies of administrative databases that include sex/gender information. An example is the BC Pop Health Data Dictionary - https://www.popdata.bc.ca/data ; another is the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy with their concept dictionary - http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/health_sciences/medicine/units/chs/departmental_units/mchp/resources/concept_dictionary.html

3. I see you have CPCSSN listed under Manitoba. That may not be correct, since there are 10 regional networks with the lead network at based at Queen's University in Kingston - https://cpcssn.ca/ (the one in Manitoba is called Manitoba Primary Care Research Network or MaPCReN)

4. There are health organizations in Ontario that are collecting more detailed sex/gender data. An example is St. Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team in Toronto where they are using the 2-step approach to collect gender and sexual orientation data. See CMAJ paper by Dr. Andrew Pinto et al. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6336479/ (see Figure 1 for the 2-step approach and Box 1 for definition of terms used).

Thanks - Francis Lau, UVic