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Back to SearchOttawa — The following letter has been sent to the affected families and patients. If you did not receive this letter, you are not affected.
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5 July 2021
Dear CHEO patient and family,
It is very important to everyone at CHEO that we protect the privacy and confidentiality of your health information. In order for us to be able to provide the best care for you and your family, you must feel comfortable sharing your personal health information with our health care providers. This is our top priority, and when we don’t meet our own high standards, we need to tell you why and what we’re doing about it.
This is why we are writing you today. On May 31, 2021, we were informed that one of our physician trainees had their car broken into in Edmonton, Alberta and a laptop was stolen. This laptop contained certain personal health information data for a retrospective research project. This is a study using pre-existing historical data. While the laptop was password protected, there is a potential that some of your personal and health information is vulnerable to unauthorized access which may be a breach of your privacy and is a breach of our privacy policy. The laptop contained an Excel file with the following information: first and last name, date of birth, medical record number, admission date, diagnosis date, most responsible diagnosis code and patient classification (e.g. inpatient or outpatient).
This file was part of an approved retrospective research project at CHEO entitled “Efficacy of Thromboprophylaxis in Reducing Rate of PICC associated Thrombosis at CHEO.” This was project looking at previous clinical information to determine the incidence of blood clots in children who have a type of intravenous line called a PICC line and whether this occurrence is reduced by being on a blood thinner in a preventative manner”. You and your child’s personal and health information was a part of this research study in accordance with Section 37 (1) (J) (3) of the Personal Health Information and Protection Act (PHIPA) (2004).
As a consequence of this event, the research project has been suspended and no further data collection and analysis is being conducted at this time.
On CHEO’s behalf, we offer you our sincere apology. This should not have happened and we take this breach of your personal and health information seriously. As part of our internal investigation, CHEO is taking the following steps:
- Working in partnership with the Edmonton Police regarding the theft and ongoing investigation;
- Contacting Microsoft in order to seek assistance in protecting the laptop, the Excel file and alert CHEO to any suspected unauthorized use and access;
- The Principal Investigator and the trainee involved are required to renew their privacy training ahead of schedule. They will have increased supervision with respect to their projects and will not operate independently.
- Additional privacy training is also being conducted across all researchers to reinforce our organization’s policies, expectations and requirements regarding safe data storage.
We have contacted the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario to report this privacy breach. The Commissioner’s Office will in turn ensure that CHEO takes the necessary steps to fully and appropriately respond to this breach of your privacy. Should you wish, you can also file a complaint about this breach of privacy with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. You can reach the Commissioner at:
Registrar
Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
1400-2 Bloor St
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8
Tel: 1-800-387-0073
If you have further questions of us, please contact Adrienne Sharp, Privacy and Access Team Leader, 613-737-7600 Ext. 4842, privacy@cheo.on.ca.
In closing, we would like to again apologize for this breach of your privacy. We are working to ensure that although this is an isolated incident, it never happens again. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Yours truly,
Dr. Jason Berman
Vice-President, Research, CHEO
CEO and Scientific Director, CHEO Research Institute