[haldujai]

There is no protection against the use and disclosure of deidentified health information as regulated by PHIPA or the IPC of Ontario. The IPC has clarified through guidance that deid data is not protected however the act of deid constitutes “use” and therefore must be through an approved means. These scenarios are approved exceptions to patient consent for use.

Some institutions and systems have internal policies that add exceed PHIPA. For example ConnectingOntario which is the closest thing to a provincial EMR only allows access for direct patient care (i.e. not even REB approved research). Some academic hospitals also add approval requirements for the disclosure of deid data to other institutions or on credentialed access repositories.

I started my medical career in Ontario and this is done all the time for things like publishing case reports, online (or non-institutional) lectures and case banks (e.g. on the publicly accessible Radiopaedia).

Not sure what you mean by whistleblowing, this is completely legal in both Ontario and the US and in my opinion entirely ethical (for the most part).

I’m not saying it’s a good idea or ethical to use these exceptions to consent for posting marketing materials on TikTok. The CPSO which regulates physicians may still find the action unprofessional/unethical for reasons not related to violating the law, but their standard is different (“behavior unbecoming of the profession” and “behavior that degrades patient trust in the practice of physicians”).

On a side note I think I’m getting old but what does “ETA” mean (other than estimated time to arrival)?

[JamisonM]

ETA means Edited to Add.

Thank you for the information.