One in three Canadians has a chronic health condition, such as diabetes, hypertension and arthritis. At the same time, there is strong support in Canada to have family physicians use electronic medical records to maintain information about their patients.

The Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network or CPCSSN (pronounced sipsin) is a new collaboration. CPCSSN is Canada's first multi-disease electronic record surveillance system. Essentially, CPCSSN can be thought of as a library of digital information on health; specifically a database on chronic diseases.

The information gathered will help physicians better understand chronic disease and improve the care Canadians with chronic disease receive. It is expected that CPCSSN will share information and reports with governments, physicians, nurses and other healthcare team members, researchers, and planners to improve primary health care.

The CPCSSN initiative is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada under a contribution agreement with the College of Family Physicians of Canada on behalf of nine practice based research networks (PBRNs) associated with departments of Family Medicine across Canada. CPCSSN also works together with the Canadian Institute of Health Information.