Privacy and Health Information

Organization

Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC)

Published

2002

Summary

The enactment of recent federal and provincial level legislation aimed at ensuring the privacy of personal information has engendered a heated debate within the health sector about what privacy means in this context and how personal privacy can be ensured while taking into consideration the many necessary secondary uses of health information. Among these, for instance, medical research, health system audits and evaluation, and epidemiology to name a few. The polarization in this debate, between good health care and research on the one hand and privacy on the other is not beneficial to consumers, who should have a right to both. To better understand the consumer perspective in this debate and to provide a context within which to understand that view, a three-tiered research project was undertaken by the Consumers' Association of Canada and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. Consumers themselves were approached and asked their views on some of the key issues in the debate, both by means of a cross-Canada written survey and five regional focus groups, in Alberta, Manitoba and the national Capital region (in both English and French). Results from this research were examined in the light of a review of health sector stakeholder groups' positions and a comparison of relevant legislative initiatives from four provinces and tile federal government.

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OCA Funded Research
This research received funding support through the Office of Consumer Affairs' Contributions Program.

Contact information

Source: Consumer Policy Research Database