Earlier this month, Ontario’s Ministry of Health (MOH) announced a notice of proposed amending regulation to support additional data contribution to the Electronic Health Record under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) for public consultation earlier this month. The deadline to provide feedback on the proposed regulations is September 4. 

On August 8, we will be hosting a webinar with MOH to provide you and your team with an overview and summary of the amendments, which will provide you with additional details to best provide the requested feedback. The original announcement follows below, and we encourage you and your team submit your feedback.

Webinar Details:

August 8, 2024 | Noon – 1:00 p.m. ET (virtual)

This presentation will provide an overview of the Ministry of Health’s plans to enable individual access to Personal Health Information (PHI) held in the provincial Electronic Health Record (EHR) and will include a summary of the regulations on the Validation, Verification, and Authentication Service (VVAS) and regulations to enable individual access to the EHR.

Cost:
TECHNATION Members & Government Employees: Complimentary
Non-Members: $25

Sponsorship Opportunities:
Logo sponsorships are available for $500 each. For more information contact Charlotte Macaulay at cmacaulay@technationcanada.ca. 

Speakers:

Jonathan Chen, Senior Program Consultant, Consumer Experience Unit, OPS. Jonathan began his OPS career in 2004 as a I&IT Security Analyst and would later join the Ministry of Health in 2021. Jonathan is the current lead for the Patient Access portfolio which aims to provide Ontarians with access to key provincial digital health tools and their PHI using a single secure logon.

Jessica Lee, Senior Program Consultant, Integration and Innovation Unit (Health), OPS. Jessica has been at the OPS and the Digital Health Program Branch since 2014. Jessica is currently the lead on regulatory amendments to modernize the EHR for data completeness, and access to personal health information.

Notice of Proposed Amending Regulation

The Ministry of Health has posted a notice of proposed amending regulation to support additional data contribution to the Electronic Health Record under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) for public consultation. The proposed regulations would also make amendments to the PHIPA General Regulation to provide the framework for:

Ontario Health’s provision of a secure login mechanism for individuals to access approved digital health resources to access certain records in the provincial Electronic Health Record (EHR), enable an enhanced Health811 experience, and receive available digital correspondences related to an individual’s health care.

Ontario Health to provide individuals access to certain electronic health records in the provincial EHR and certain EHR audit records kept by Ontario Health. For health information custodians, s. 51(6) of PHIPA which provides a general right of access to records in the custody of a HIC on when an individual’s PHI in the EHR has been viewed, handled or dealt with by the HIC (e.g., audit logs) would also need to be proclaimed. The proposed regulation would only require that HICs provide summaries of such access logs, if available.

Overall, these amendments aim to support improved access to health care services and personal health information held in provincial repositories and empower patients to be better informed and engaged during their health care journey. The proposed regulations are currently posted in the Regulatory Registry for public consultation until September 4, 2024. (Link: https://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/view.do?language=en&postingId=48053) We encourage our stakeholders to provide any feedback they may have. Please note that any feedback received from the Regulatory Registry website will be part of the public record. If you wish to provide feedback via a meeting or have any questions or additional comments, please feel free to reach out to digitalhealthprogrambranch@ontario.ca with your availability and we’d be happy to schedule some time to meet

Event Details