Alberta Health Services (AHS) has worked closely with Alberta Health, Covenant Health, the Alberta Medical Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary and other stakeholders to develop a new “Clinical Information Sharing Approach” (CISA) that will shape uses of AHS Clinical Information Systems (CIS).
CISA applies to all researchers using information in AHS CISs, including MEDITECH, Sunrise Clinical Manager, eClinician, eCritical and Connect Care, the AHS Provincial CIS. CISA replaces the Information Sharing Framework (ISF) that applied to AHS ambulatory care Electronic Medical Records. The new information sharing approach takes effect during a November and December transition period, and is fully supported from January 1, 2018.
As part of the transition, all research agreements for access to data in eClinician executed under the ISF have been assigned to the AHS Research, Innovation & Analytics portfolio. As Alberta’s largest provider of care, AHS partners with Alberta’s academic institutions and affiliated research institutes and centres to enable researchers by providing access to patients, facilities, expertise, key services and health data.
Information sharing is about how health data is collected, accessed, used, disclosed and exchanged. Although the ISF and CISA both recognize that patients own their personal information, CISA more clearly outlines AHS’ custodial accountabilities for the protection of information. Users of AHS CISs, as affiliates of AHS, participate in such protections.
Shared rights, responsibilities and accountabilities are central to CISA, which in turn builds trust between clinicians, patients and their families. By emphasizing both technical and social protections for the privacy, confidentiality, security and integrity of health information, CISA also respects the unique trust and confidentiality accountabilities of all healthcare professionals.
This memorandum is provided for information purposes only. No action is required as a result of this notification.
Information and Inquiries
For more information regarding CISA, please visit its Connect Care webpage
For inquiries about research access to eClinician, please email [email protected]
If you would like to learn more about clinician opportunities to become involved in information stewardship and oversight, please email [email protected]