When you consider the vast pool of personal health information that exists in electronic health record databases as well as the growing number of registries (both public and private) a large number of unanswered questions exist as to just what people, as patients and stakeholders, should accept as the “rules” surrounding such data.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive my copy of Information Security and Privacy: A Practical Guide for Global Executives, Lawyers and Technologists — I contributed the section on Canada. It is a new book from the Science and Technology Law Section of the American Bar Association. Thomas Shaw did a very good job piecing together a […]

The subject of medical research and personal information protection can quickly become a quagmire. Even raising the subject risks one being tagged as a Grinch-like character who surely must drown kittens and tell those young cancer-stricken children appearing in telethons that there’s no Santa Claus. The win-win scenario is de-identified information with good security around […]

In Ottawa, there’s talk of an election. From a privacy perspective, this raises questions not only about the fate of Bill C-29 (PIPEDA amendments) but also the anticipated-later-this-year second review of PIPEDA. Even if there isn’t an election, no one knows for sure about the timing of the enactment of C-29 in relation to the […]

It’s tough to be a hospital these days and I don’t envy the people trying to manage such places.  But one thing I do expect is some degree of attention to the confidentiality of patient information. One hospital provides a unique set of facts that raises the question of appropriate regulatory responses.