Infographic: Evidence from CIHR's eHealth Innovations Initiative Impact Assessment

eHealth Impacts

Most common types of eHealth interventions:

• 38% - Virtual care/telemedicine
• 38% - Home health monitoring applications
• 30% - Patient portals

92% of respondents reported that the eHealth Initiative has been essential for their research workand advancements in digital health over the last few years.

50% of respondents reported that their interventions were being scaled or spread to other settings, contexts and/or populations.

eHealth interventions were reported to...

Overall health impacts

• 51% - Improve health outcomes
• 47% - Improve population health
• 44% - Improve health equity
• 42% - Address determinants of health

Health system impacts

• 67% - Improve patient experience
• 50% - Improve cost-effectiveness
• 47% - Improve equitable access to care
• 46% - Improve provider experience
• 45% - Changes in health system practices
• 28% - Improve health system performance
• 19% - Changes in health policy

Collective Canadian investment in eHealth Initiative

• Total CIHR investment: $17.8M
• Total grants awarded: 59
• Investment in digital health solutions for older adults: $11M
• Grants focused on digital health solutions for older adults: 20
• Investment from external partners: $29M (Partners are defined here as any sponsor providing in-kind and/or financial support, at the competition or applicant-level)
• CIHR and external partners: 11

Barriers

• Lack of time in healthcare to support the intervention
• High personnel turnover rates
• Delays in testing due to COVID-19

Enablers

• Increased market demand for digital health solutions (due to COVID-19)
• Co-design & iterative design of eHealth solution with partners
• Credibility of eHIPP program

Partnerships

eHealth Initiative projects helped to sustain existing partnerships and to form new partnerships.

• 92% partnerships with healthcare providers
• 83% people with lived or living experience
• 44% partnerships with policy/decision makers

Future research

On a scale of 0 to 100, respondents rated the need for CIHR's continuous investment in digital health as... 92.

Recommendations included:

• A continued focus on knowledge creation (development of new eHealth interventions) and knowledge implementation, with a stronger focus on implementation science;
• Support digital health research for priority populations, to ensure appropriate and equitable access to the health system and services and to improve clinical care data systems;
• Encourage increased opportunities for networking and collaboration between researchers, industry and policy makers and strengthen innovation efforts for managing equitable development of digital health.

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