Innovation and Our Data: This Does Not Need to Be Scary.

The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence has unveiled the clinical, public health, and economic value of Canada's health data assets. However, the Canadian industry developing technologies to improve the standard and quality of Canadian healthcare has limited, and often dysfunctional, access to data. The eighth principle of the Pan-Canadian Health Data Charter calls for data-driven social and technological innovation through partnership, invention, discovery, value creation, and international best practice. Trustworthy and efficient innovation data access is essential for realizing a data ecosystem that improves the health and clinical outcomes for Canadians. This article examines the innovation data access landscape in Canada and identifies structural and cultural challenges. It proposes governance mechanisms in the context of current legislation to address challenges and promote trust in ethical data use while looking internationally for inspiration, and reinforces that achieving the eighth principle is structurally dependant on addressing the other nine in turn.