The province assures its new websites containing health and patient records will be safe and secure.
When the sites were announced at the Sturgeon Community Hospital in St. Albert Wednesday, conversation quickly shifted to the risk involved in such an endeavour.
“Having safety and security of the system and of our own private personal health information is critical,” said Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky. “[We have to] make sure that what we’re doing is being developed strategically, carefully and also with the greatest of safety and security in mind.”
Richard Alvarez, president of project partner Canada Health Infoway, said security is the cornerstone of any electronic system like the one his group is championing with AHS.
“If in fact you get that wrong, then you’ve got some serious problems and then you’ll lose the trust of the people trying to access the site,” he said.
But there is no such thing as a foolproof system, said Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work. Just about every system has some vulnerability and users need to be mindful of that.
There is also risk of someone in the health care system finding more nefarious uses for patient histories — a prosecutable offence.
Despite the risk, Work supports the new sites.
“The law requires privacy impact assessments every time personal health information is involved for an electronic system,” said Work. “My experience has been that health care providers are very diligent in preparing these and we’re very cautious reviewing them. They are pretty good about dealing with our concerns.”
