MEDIA RELEASE For Immediate Release January 27, 2010 (TORONTO, ON) – The H1N1 immunization campaign and development of the national electronic health record (EHR) system are two recent initiatives that underscore the need to protect the privacy of Canadians’ health information, one of the most sensitive types of personal information. In Newfoundland and Labrador, public and private sector healthcare organizations now have free, direct access to an important privacy, security and confidentiality resource, the COACH Guidelines for the Protection of Health Information, through a new jurisdictional licensing agreement. The three-year agreement with the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information (the Centre) provides for province-wide use and distribution of the Guidelines. “Ensuring the protection of personal health information is increasing in importance as we move toward development of interoperable electronic health records nationwide,” says the Centre’s CEO Mike Barron. “The COACH Guidelines provide a usable resource for all providers and organizations with a responsibility for health information, describing key privacy and security issues and offering direction for responding to these issues in compliance with the forthcoming provincial Personal Health Information Act. We are very pleased to make the Guidelines available to the healthcare system in Newfoundland and Labrador.” "The Guidelines document, embodying tenets of privacy legislation and principles that are widely accepted across Canada, is a vital component of the privacy and security framework that is essential to protect personal health information in this country,” said COACH CEO Don Newsham. “Newfoundland and Labrador joins three other Canadian jurisdictions – the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan – in facilitating widespread use of the Guidelines through jurisdictional agreements. This goes a long way towards ensuring Canada has sound, consistent practices and processes on important initiatives such as the interoperable EHR and facilitating effective and appropriate personal health information sharing, with improved care being the ultimate goal.” Canadian privacy and security experts author and regularly update the practical, easy-to-use Guidelines, covering a wide range of topics including:
January 27, 2010
Organized to reflect the core principles of the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, the content is aligned with Canada Health Infoway requirements, national standards and international standards, such as the ISO 27002 Security Management Standards. Healthcare organizations of all sizes, jurisdictions and structures can rely on this action-oriented set of best practices to minimize risk, maximize integrity and protect the privacy of personal health information. Watch for a supplementary handbook to be published this spring. Guidelines jurisdictional agreements, including annual content updates for multi-year agreements, are available to all Canadian provincial and other jurisdictions. The 300-page textbook version of the Guidelines and the e-Guidelines are also available from COACH.
About COACH COACH: Canada's Health Informatics Association is the diverse community of accomplished, influential professionals who work passionately to make a difference in health informatics (HI). Members are dedicated to realizing their full potential as professionals and advancing HI through access to information, talent, credentials, recognition, programs and a broad range of services and specialized resources. For more information, visit www.coachorg.com. For more information Contact COACH Phone (416) 494-9324, Toll free 1-888-253-8554 info@coachorg.com www.coachorg.com
The database is processing a transaction. This window will refresh to display the results once the processing has completed.