Quebec to modernize access to patient health data with new bill

The Quebec government unveiled Wednesday a new bill to modernize access to patient health data in order to increase transparency and improve information sharing among professionals.

The "Act respecting health information and social services and amending various legislative provisions" will make it easier for patients to consult their health records. They will also be able to know who has had access to their information and will be able to decide whether or not to share that information with other professionals.

Bill 3 is actually a slightly modified version of Bill 19, which was introduced almost exactly one year ago. However, the latter died on the order paper before it could be adopted by the National Assembly.

The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, and the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs, Éric Caire, held a joint press conference to present the content of the bill. This bill will establish the legislative framework for the deployment of a new technological infrastructure under the supervision of Minister Caire.

To summarize the concept of the new approach, medical or social service records will no longer be distributed among each of the professionals consulted, but will follow the patient wherever he or she goes to seek help.

Currently, each health professional, whether in the public or private sector, keeps a physical file on each of his or her patients and this file is not necessarily shared with another specialist unless the patient requests it.

In the eyes of Minister Caire, patients are currently being treated as "government clerks" by being asked to chase down the information needed by the professionals who care for them.

The modernization of the law has several objectives, including encouraging the "active participation" of people in improving their health. It is also intended to facilitate the work of network professionals by improving the efficiency of information sharing.

Emphasizing the importance of "the fluidity of information", Minister Dubé pointed out that this new way of proceeding will make it possible to include health professionals outside the public network, such as pharmacists and doctors in private clinics.

In addition, the goal is to simplify the work of researchers by giving them better access to health data while ensuring the confidentiality of their use.

In this regard, it is assured that "robust protection standards" will be put in place to protect the personal information of Quebecers. Access to data will be restricted to the minimum necessary for each specialist and a logbook will record each consultation of the data bank.

For Minister Dubé, this modernization of the information system is one of the pillars of his health plan. In particular, he recalled that at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government had difficulty taking the right actions because it lacked data on its network.

Eventually, the government hopes to be able to draw on the huge database it will have access to to more effectively allocate funding for activities in the health system.

Once the concept has been defined, the next step is to make the project a reality by developing the digital infrastructure. This operation has already begun in parallel with the legislative steps taken by the elected officials.

Dubé has repeatedly stated that he is banking on an "agile" type of project management. The first goal is to implement this new digitized file in two regions of Quebec in order to fine-tune the implementation. Then, the government will proceed to the integration of the rest of the province.

This approach differs from previous attempts to roll out a similar system, which failed after huge investments.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Dec. 7, 2022, with the financial assistance of the Canadian Medical Association. The Canadian Medical Association has no editorial control over the content.