I’m Kate Dewhirst.

My team and I write about legal issues affecting healthcare in Canada.

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January is the time for your annual “Privacy Reminder”

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Happy new year!

If you are a health care Privacy Officer, January is a great time to remind your organization about privacy. By sending out an annual privacy email or privacy update in a newsletter – you keep privacy top of mind for your teams and you have something tangible to show your organization’s commitment to privacy.

What to include:

  1. Key privacy reminders
    • Keep information confidential
    • Do not “snoop” (meaning look at health records without authority)
    • Do not take health information off-site (and if necessary to take off-site – how to protect it)
  2. Key changes in privacy rules that happened in 2016
  3. Names of your privacy policies (and where to find them)
  4. Name of the privacy officer

Keep a copy:

Make sure you keep a copy of all your annual Privacy Reminders in a folder (electronic or hard copy).  These reminders demonstrate to the public, and the Privacy Commissioner and the courts that you have taken privacy seriously and can reduce your overall legal exposure.

Would you like a sample?

Join my privacy community by sending me an email at kate@katedewhirst.com – and I will send you my sample Health Care Privacy Update for 2017 – free!


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Some of Kate’s recent and upcoming events

Free healthcare privacy webinar - ask me anything!
the first Wednesday of every month

Free webinars - advance registration needed

Whether you're an experienced privacy officer or new in the field, pick Kate’s brain for free for an hour, in this live webinar. No charge, but you’ll need to register in advance.

Health Privacy Officer Foundations training
starts March 2024

For Privacy Officers within healthcare organizations.

This course focuses on how to become a more confident privacy officer and gives you the tools to document your privacy program. Full details and registration here...

Join the Shush: a collective of health privacy officers
Annual membership 2024

For Privacy Officers within healthcare organizations

This is an annual membership program that takes theory into practice and tackles real life scenarios to build Privacy Officer skills.
Full details and registration here.

Primary care webinars: Employment Law Update & Legal Issues for EDs and Board members

Part of Kate’s monthly webinar series.

Our 2024 program is now live.
Full details of the 2024 webinar series and registration here.

Mental Health webinars: Legal issues for mental health and addictions agencies and teams
Annual membership 2024

For managers and other leaders from mental health and addictions agencies, hospitals, CMHAs, CHCs, school boards, FHTs and Indigenous health services

This is an annual membership program with monthly webinars.
Full details and registration here.

Team Privacy Training Events

For Primary Care clinics, Hospitals, Community Agencies, Mental Health Teams, Public Health Units, School Boards, Police departments

Scheduled to your team's needs for comprehensive or refresher training More details...

Free summary of all PHIPA IPC decisions

Want to read privacy breach stories to learn how to improve your work? We have summarized all the Information and Privacy Commissioner's health privacy decisions for you Download here...

Kate Dewhirst Health Law

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My mission is bringing the law to life. I make legal theory understandable, accessible and fun! I’m available and love to work for all organizations in the healthcare sector across Ontario and beyond.

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