Jane Philpott appointed to lead Ontario's pandemic data effort

The Progressive Conservative government in Ontario has appointed Jane Philpott, the former federal cabinet

minister, to lead the pandemic data effort, according to the Globe and Mail.

Dr. Philpott is a former health minister for Justin Trudeau and is a family physician. She will serve on the new Ontario Health Data Platform as the special advisor and will chair a roundtable involving 15 health experts in order to provide Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliot and Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy with the advice they need. The government plans to start the platform by July, with Dr. Philpott’s two-year position being unpaid.

Dr. Philpott wants the platform to respond to, and better detect corona vvirus adding that she would also like to further study the racial and socioeconomic impacts of the virus.

"There are real challenges in health data. There are real challenges with a health care system that for as long as I’ve known it has had … silos," she said during an interview.

"There are huge amounts of information that have to be brought together in order to understand the pandemic better."

Ms. Elliot called Dr. Philpott her "obvious choice" for the position. Dr. Philpott begins as dean of faculty of health sciences at Queen's University in July, and has a large amount of experience in public health. She worked at a Participaction House north of Toronto—a home for disabled adults—during the pandemic. The home had a severe coronavirus outbreak.

Dr. Philpott, a former Liberal MP, quit Trudeau’s cabinet due to the SNC-Lavalin affair and was eventually removed from caucus. In the 2019 election, she lost her Markham area seat.

Ms. Elliott noted that the platform’s goal is to “break down the barriers,” and better detect coronavirus, to find risk factors for populations that are vulnerable and to predict where and when outbreaks might occur.

"These are all issues we hope that Dr. Philpott will tackle, to bring all of this information together," she said.

Access to data will be provided through the new platform such as emergency-department visits, hospital discharge summaries and long-term care claims. The data will be used by health care systems and researchers for public-policy decisions.

Mr. Bethlenfalvy said he looks at the platforms as preparation for a possible second wave of coronavirus in the fall.

Experts have criticized Ontario’s health care system calling it "antiquated" as it has relied on results from fax machines as well as disparate data—to track the spread of the virus—from 34 public-health units.

Lauren Lapointe is a scientist and doctor with the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. She has been working with coronavirus patients and says Ontario is not currently able to track results in the health care system in real time.

“We really don’t have any sort of organized process to support timely data collection on COVID-19 cases or their outcomes," she said.

“If you’re getting data late, then you’re always looking backwards.”