May 28, 2013
Adam Stinson
Manager, eHealth Privacy Services, PHSA
The BC eHealth Legal/Privacy Scenario
An Effective Patchwork
Faculty/Presenter Disclosure
• Faculty: Adam Stinson
• Relationships with commercial interests:
– None
– Nothing to disclose
Agenda
• Background
– eHealth progress
– Legislative landscape
• eHealth Viewer in BC
• Agreement patchwork
• Keys to success
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Background
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Background
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Legislative landscape
Major Acts governing eHealth currently in BC
• E-Health (Personal Health Information Access and
Protection of Privacy) Act
– Health Information Bank (HIB)
– Disclosure Directives
• Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(FIPPA)
• Pharmaceutical Services Act
• Public Health Act
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The Big Challenges
• Technology does not conveniently fit into the
legislative framework
• Multiple Data Stewards
• Multiple privacy controls dictated by the Acts
themselves
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CareConnect
X5
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All patient data is fictional
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Information Sharing Agreements
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Privacy implications
• Multiple legislative authorities result in varying
levels of privacy controls available by data
domain
• Multiple data stewards result in fragmented
approach to custody and control issues, breach
management, etc…
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CareConnect – Disclosure Directives
All patient data is fictional
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The good news…
• While the patchwork of legal and privacy
arrangements exist – it works!
• The development and adoption of CareConnect
has brought multiple stakeholders together to
dialogue and confront the challenges
– eHealth Operations team has served as a facilitator
• In the end, clinical users are getting better, faster
access to the information they need
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Going forward
• Work is underway to streamline not the various
pieces of legislation, but rather the approach to
Information Sharing Agreements
– General Health Information Sharing Agreement
• Work also underway to bring uniformity to
disclosure directive/masking approach in BC
– Introduction of new data domains will demand
this work to be seen through to completion
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