VANCOUVER—David Byres, president & CEO of the Provincial Health Services Authority, issued the following statement in response to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia report on B.C.’s Provincial Public Health Information System.
“PHSA takes privacy very seriously and on behalf of patients, clients and families throughout British Columbia, we are continually taking steps to ensure that people’s sensitive and private information is secure and protected.”
With respect to some of the report’s findings:
- PHSA regularly completes security enhancements; we completed an upgrade of the Panorama system in July 2022, which involved upgrading security of this important public health tool that helps to support frontline health-care workers with management of communicable diseases, outbreaks, immunizations and vaccine inventory.
- PHSA has a user access auditing system in place and we are working to enhance our auditing solution and processes.
- Security assessments have consistently indicated PHSA sufficiently protects patient data and we will continue to review how additional data encryption may better protect information.
- PHSA actively deploys strategies to mitigate cybersecurity threats, and has a dedicated team that supports this activity.
“We thank the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for this report. We commit to carefully reviewing the findings and continuing to ensure our databases are safe and secure for everyone we serve.”
PHSA Communications
778-867-7472
