We're living in the information age. Information zips through our society at lightning speed. It's stored in our minds, in filing cabinets, and on computers – everything from HR files and credit card statements to medical records – but how safe is this stuff? Is our information protected against abuse?

Your personal health record may very well be your most confidential information. Above most things, it needs to be protected. You deserve to have control over it, and now, for the most part, you do.

On November 1, 2004, the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004, or PHIPA, comes into effect in Ontario. It means that your personal health information is now protected in a clear and consistent way. It means that doctors, hospitals, laboratories, and anyone else that handles your health records has to take the right measures to protect your health information, and make sure it doesn't get into the wrong hands. It means that you can now request access to your own health records, and you can ask to have any information in your file corrected.

This new legislation puts the rules in place to safeguard your personal health information-while it continues to zip along the information highway.

Until this legislation came into effect, an existing patchwork of laws protected the privacy of your personal health information in some health care settings and not others. This new legislation protects your privacy in all areas of the health system.

Whether you're dealing with a doctor, nurse or dentist – they need to protect your medical information. If you're getting new eye-glasses, the optometrist needs to ensure that your personal health information is protected. Your pharmacist needs to protect your health records too – so does the paramedic and the receptionist at your local Community Care Access Centre.

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario has been advocating for this type of legislation for more than 13 years. "This will help protect the most sensitive of all personal information," said Ann Cavoukian, the province's Information and Privacy Commissioner. "Effective health information privacy legislation has to strike the right balance between allowing health care professionals to quickly pass on the information needed for patient care to another health professional, while restricting unauthorized disclosure. This legislation does that".

For more information, visit www.health.gov.on.ca or call the Ministry of Health's INFOline at 1-800-461-2036.

October 2004

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