Privacy and the protection of personal health information are a critical domain of digital health delivery to Canadians. Canadian provinces and territories has each their own privacy laws and regulations in place to which are designed to protect personal health information.

PIPEDA and HIPAA Compliant Apps

In Untied States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) federal law sets the standard for sensitive patient data protection. Originally proposed in 1996 in order that workers could carry forward insurance and healthcare rights between jobs, however the Act has then expanded into an Act of legislation that also governs health insurance fraud and tax provisions and much more more.

In Canada the federal law of Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), is in many ways comparable to the HIPAA in the United States. Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec have their own private-sector privacy laws that have been deemed substantially similar to PIPEDA. These standards set forth requirements that applies to healthcare providers, health information organizations, and business associates that store, transmit or manage protected health information.

In Canada there are a number of requirements to comply with the PIPEDA federal law, for example organizations must obtain an individual’s consent when they collect, use or disclose individual’s personal information or these personal information can only be used for the purposes for which it was collected.

More Information:

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act

Do you need help with PIPEDA and HIPAA Compliance?

Our team of PIPEDA security consultants in Toronto can help to develop security software can help you address the law’s provisions concerning the privacy and security of electronic protected health information. These could include developing workflows and systems to provide rights to individuals to access or amend their protected health information; implement security rules covering administrative and technical safeguards; implement systems for requirement management for policies and procedures; and document management systems.

Additionally our HIPAA expert team in Toronto can help your organization with reviewing best practices for addressing the PIPEDA and HIPAA security rules, help you to establish an audit process and help your organization in providing evidence to prove PIPEDA and HIPAA compliance.