ICES receives core funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC).

[4] Dr. David Naylor and Dr. Jack Williams proposed to provincial health officials the creation of a new research institute that would securely analyse the administrative data routinely collected by the government through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), in order to produce population-based evidence.

[4] ICES is designated as a "prescribed entity" in Ontario under the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA).

Under Section 45 of PHIPA, this designation allows ICES to collect and use administrative data for the purposes of monitoring and evaluating the provincial health system.

[8] By linking the different data sets together using anonymous numeric unique identifiers, ICES scientists track different aspects of health service use and patient outcomes over time and across the province.