Nova Scotia Health improves access to healthcare with data and digital innovation
Achievements at a glance
Nova Scotia Health is the largest provider of health services in Nova Scotia, Canada. It operates hospitals, health centres and community-based programs across the province. Working with EY and Kainos, the team embarked on ambitious transformation projects that are leading the way in using data and digitalisation to improve healthcare in Canada.
Challenges
Scott McKenna, Chief Information Officer at Nova Scotia Health and IWK Health, summed up the overall goal: “Our ultimate aim is for it to be easier for Nova Scotians to manage their health. Everything we want to do is about ‘pressing the easy button’ for citizens – giving them access to information and helping them navigate to the right places to get the right care.”
The Nova Scotia government’s Action for Health plan identified digital transformation as a key enabler for providing this enhanced care and supporting people working in the health system.
But what was the best way to achieve those ambitions?
Nova Scotia Health had a complex and disparate network of IT systems supported by dedicated staff. However, they sought to explore innovative technologies to enhance data integration, enabling citizens to seamlessly and securely access and manage their health information. As a result, the organisation wanted its digital transformation to address challenges with:
- Awareness and access to health services – citizens were often unsure about what services were available, where they were located and how long they’d have to wait
- Lack of clinical and operational decision-making support – because there wasn’t integrated, province-wide healthcare data
- Disjointed systems and ways of working – leading to siloes, inconsistent workflows and difficulties with interoperability across specific areas of care
- Limited visibility and information sharing – in part due to significant use of paper-based documentation and lack of common standards
Nova Scotia Health partnered with EY and Kainos to develop a plan for addressing these issues as part of its digital transformation approach.
Approach
Understanding the current state, prioritising an action plan
To deliver the greatest value and drive a citizen-centric approach, we started with a discovery phase. Over 6 months, we interviewed a range of stakeholders and conducted a deep dive into healthcare systems, integrations, data collection, data use and operational processes.
Based on this analysis, we identified multiple transformation projects that would help overcome siloes, address inefficiencies, improve the experience for Nova Scotians, support clinicians – ultimately enabling better health outcomes.
Starting with data: Aligning with FHIR standards
When analysing the current state, there was a clear and common data challenge: health data was spread across disparate systems and couldn’t easily be shared or unified.
Therefore, implementing a common data governance model was a priority in the transformation roadmap. This involved migrating hundreds of millions of healthcare data points into a single data store in the cloud and aligning it with the International Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard. This gave Nova Scotia Health a common way to manage, maintain and control medical information so it could be used across systems.
By aligning with FHIR, data from the hundreds of individual systems across acute and primary care could be used for integrated analytics and electronic health records. This allowed citizens using various services to access a comprehensive view of their health records, empowering them to engage more effectively with medical professionals when discussing care plans.
An integrated health services registry application
The next transformation project involved creating a web-based application with the locations of healthcare services, from hospitals to diagnostic services, urgent care and pharmacies.
Due to inconsistencies and siloes, it was hard for patients and clinicians to find the nearest healthcare locations, the services they offered and whether those services were available.
Therefore, when patients had a particular requirement, it could involve a series of phone calls to determine where they should go.
On the admin side, people had to update information in multiple places whenever there was a change in hours or offering. This manual process involved emails, phone calls and even faxes.
We built a user-friendly, web-based application that unified relevant information, so it was all available in one place and could be updated in a few clicks. Using agile ways of working, the first iteration went into production in just 4 months. Additional data was added until all relevant services were incorporated, resulting in the application now being well-used across the province.
The flagship project: YourHealthNS digital platforms
The province of Nova Scotia has a big ambition for healthcare: creating accessible, digital platforms where people could view their online health records, navigate health information, book services and discover care options easier and faster than ever.
Having consolidated healthcare data into Microsoft Azure health data services using FHIR and Microsoft Fabric, Nova Scotia Health had the foundation for achieving this. Nova Scotia Health, EY and Kainos worked together to build the platform and capabilities.
The first iteration of the YourHealthNS platform launched provincially in November 2023. This focused on giving citizens easy access to trusted healthcare information, including resources about diseases and pathways for local community healthcare options.
In January 2024, the second phase went live piloting access to health records for a subset of the population, within YourHealthNS. And in July 2024, health records within YourHealthNS became publicly available for every citizen in Nova Scotia aged 16 and older.
As Scott McKenna, Chief Information Officer at Nova Scotia Health and IWK Health, said at the time: “In September 2023, we presented the plan to align with the FHIR standard and fundamentally re-design how data flows across healthcare to the senior team in the province. Just over a year later, we’re lightyears ahead. It’s been an incredible journey.”
Results
More than 630,000 people downloaded the YourHealthNS app
As of March 2025, YourHealthNS had been downloaded approximately 630,000 time. Given the population of Nova Scotia is over 1 million people, it has become a powerful tool for reaching citizens directly and empowering them with better healthcare information and access.
The app’s success is a testament to collaboration with many stakeholders, including the provincial government, which passed legislation requiring healthcare providers to give patients access to their records, free of charge.
The platform’s development roadmap is evolving, with future functionality ideas being explored, such as allowing people to complete forms online, pre-register for appointments, access additional test results and ultimately work toward an integrated online health record.
Easier, more equitable access to healthcare
The new services are empowering citizens with user-friendly information about accessing services, making it easier for people across the province to get the right care.
Physicians have described YourHealthNS as “a game-changer for instructing patients on how to access services and information.” Whether it’s scheduling a virtual care appointment or booking bloodwork, the app is now the answer. As one physician said: “Having a central location to access information is incredible.” Another commented: “With the app, people gain familiarity with primary healthcare access points, which reduces unnecessary flow and backlogs in emergency departments.”
Improved patient safety and better health outcomes
Having access to unified healthcare information is empowering patients to share relevant data with clinicians, helping them make more informed decisions. While clinicians do not have direct access at this time, patients can choose to share a comprehensive list of medications, vaccines, test results and other information with their providers, allowing for a more accurate and holistic view of their situation.
Physicians have also reported the benefits of patients having their health information so readily available: “In primary care, patients are coming pre-loaded with more understanding of their health conditions. It empowers them when talking to doctors and leads to more focused conversations during the appointment around next steps and care plans.” Another doctor added: “Patients are also more actively seeking care following tests because they can review the results in the app, providing an added layer of safety on follow-up.”