Connecting . . .

• 13 Regional Health Authorities
• Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO)
• Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association
• Saskatchewan Cancer Agency
• College of Physicians and Surgeons
• College of Dental Surgeons
• Department of Family Medicine
• Community-based pharmacies

All health regions and over 800 health facilities are connected across the province.

Security of health information remains a key focus.

Security of patient information is maintained through a complex Security Architecture that includes firewalls, intrusion-detection software, virus-detection measures, server isolation, user access controls and encryption.

Policies, practices and audit processes are built into all applications to increase the level of security for patient records and personal information beyond what has existed in the paper environment.

Authentication procedures ensure access to specific information is only available to authorized personnel. Audit trails indicate when and who has accessed the data. Detailed testing is undertaken to ensure secure functioning of all applications.

Investments were made in 2006-07 to replace and upgrade regional and data centre firewalls to the most current technology, configured to security best practices. Work continues in the planning and development of an integrated identity management system to more efficiently manage health care provider access for all hosted applications.

Security is critical in the operation of the health information network and data centre, and it will remain a key focus of ongoing development and enhancement. Saskatchewan works collaboratively with the other provinces and Canada Health Infoway to ensure that the highest levels of security are incorporated into all health information technology solutions as technologies continue to evolve.