Effective outbreak management requires adaptable informatics systems that can respond to emerging public health threats. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) lacked a centralized system for communicable disease (CD) outbreak management, relying on a mix of separate tools that led to increased workload and delayed response. In 2020, VCH, followed by Island Health (ISLH) implemented a case and contact tracing (CCT) platform. While enhanced to support COVID-19 and influenza, the platform’s disease-specific design limits its use for other outbreaks such as mpox, measles, and recurring clusters like pertussis. Previous efforts to expand legacy systems have proven costly and ineffective. This project aims to expand the current CCT platform to support both routine CD investigations and a broader range of outbreak responses, strengthening public health capacity and ensuring long-term sustainability across VCH and ISLH.

Vancouver Coastal Health and Island Health are posting this Call for Innovation to seek out qualified Canadian companies who can meet the following desired outcomes. Vancouver Coastal Health, Island Health, and CAN Health reserves the right to not move forward with this project at its full discretion and in particular if there are no qualified Canadian companies that can reasonably meet the desired outcomes.

To qualify for a CAN Health project, the company must meet ALL the following criteria:

  • Headquartered in Canada (additional criteria apply for companies not headquartered in Canada)
  • Majority ownership of both the company and the solution by Canadians
  • Solution at Technology Readiness Level (TRL)>7, indicating actual technology completed and qualified through tests and demonstrations
  • All the data and AI models (if applicable) must be hosted in Canada and comply with all the Canadian privacy regulations
  • Possess all regulatory approvals required for commercialization, such as Health Canada approval
  • Completion of all required clinical validity/unity studies
  • No need for policy changes to be widely adopted
  • Strong use cases in the Canadian healthcare system.

If the company is not headquartered in Canada or the solution is not majority owned by Canadians, additional criteria apply:

  • Independent autonomy over business operations and product development (for subsidiaries, affiliates or distributors)
  • High Canadian job creation potential, especially in executive and senior management positions
  • Commitment of over 70% of contract value to Canada.

During the company selection process, preference is given to companies/solutions fully owned by Canadians, followed by those majority owned by Canadians, and finally international companies with a significant presence and economic impact in Canada.

For more information on the Call for Innovation process and the commercialization projects funded by CAN Health Network, please refer to the FAQ page on the CAN Health Network website: https://canhealthnetwork.ca/faq/

Opening Date: June 3, 2026 Closing Date: June 24, 2026
Problem Statement and Objective(s)

Problem Statement: Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and Island Health (ISLH) currently lack a sustainable, centralized informatics system capable of supporting both routine communicable disease (CD) investigations and a broad range of outbreak responses. Existing tools are fragmented, and the current case and contact tracing (CCT) platform is limited by its disease-specific design, hindering preparedness and response efficiency for emerging and recurring public health threats.

Objectives: To expand the use of CCT applications beyond specific diseases, enabling broader use for routine health investigations, and strengthening communicable disease follow-up and outbreak response across VCH and ISLH.

Desired outcomes and considerations

Essential (mandatory) outcomes:

  • Reduce documentation burden by consolidating systems
  • Eliminate paper and manual Excel use
  • Support rapid, scalable response to novel pathogens
  • Support high-volume case/contact tracing
  • Prevent future CCT expansion funding requests
  • Maintain low cost and resource needs
  • Strengthen public health and CD preparedness
  • Improve early threat detection and outbreak response
  • Enable integration with systems like Cerner or use as provincial EMR
  • Facilitate custom reporting and meet provincial requirements
Background and context

VCH and ISLH are seeking a flexible, cost-effective digital solution to improve early detection, containment, and public health readiness during outbreaks. The goal is to address long-standing gaps in outbreak data systems and enable a more proactive, integrated response.

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