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When you see a specialist or get test results, it might be tempting to think that, somewhere, a medical professional is connecting the dots.
But a new report by an Alberta group found that sharing health information between professionals is often fragmented in Canada — increasing the likelihood of medical errors and harm, the report suggests.
“In most places in Canada, health information does not flow digitally from one clinic or hospital or health authority to another,” said Dr. Ewan Affleck, the report’s lead author and a family doctor who works in Edmonton and Northwest Territories.
“It just simply stops.”
This means that when a patient is referred to an orthopedic surgeon by their family doctor, for example, the specialist …