Disconnected Care: The impact of the Alberta HIA on the health and wellbeing of Albertans

The Health Information Act (HIA)—Alberta’s primary legislation governing health information—is designed to strike a balance between protecting privacy and enabling information sharing to support the delivery of health services. The HIA came into force on April 25, 2001, almost a quarter of a century ago, long before the advent of cloud-based data systems and AI, a virtual ‘geological age’ in the world of information technology. In Disconnected Care, a new report released in February 2025, we ask the simple question, what is the impact of the HIA on the health and wellbeing of Albertans? The finding may be surprising to many.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the impact of health policy on the health and wellbeing of Canadians
2. Recognize that health data policy in Canada is antiquated or non-existant and can harm Canadians, health providers and the health care system.
3. Understand who is in charge of overseeing health data design and use in Canada
4. Understand the vast scope of this problem and the lack of health data literacy that underscores it.
 

Speaker:

Dr. Ewan Affleck has worked and lived in northern Canada since 1992. He is currently serving as the Senior Medical Advisor - Health Informatics, College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta, Strategic Advisor - Clinical and Informatics at the Canadian Institute for Health Information, and Chair of the Alberta Virtual Care Coordinating Body. He is the past Chief Medical Information Officer of the Northwest Territories, was co-chair of the national Virtual Care Task Force, served on the Expert Working Group of the pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy, and is the Executive Producer and co-writer of The Unforgotten (2021), an award-winning film about inequities in health service for Indigenous people living in Canada. In 2013, he was appointed to the Order of Canada for his contribution to northern health care.