PHIPA DECISION 166

The complainant, a patient of a regional cancer centre within a public hospital, alleged that Cancer Care Ontario collected and used his personal health information, obtained through a cancer symptoms survey, without his valid consent and without legal authority. He also expressed concerns about the survey, including that it should have clearly stated that its completion was voluntary. Cancer Care Ontario responded that various sections of the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 and its regulations authorize it to provide the survey to the hospital, collect personal health information from the hospital and store personal health information from the survey in a database. In some of these transactions, Cancer Care Ontario acts in its capacity as a health information network provider, while in others, it acts in its capacity as a prescribed entity. Cancer Care Ontario also took steps to address the complainant’s concerns, including updating the survey to make it clearer that completion of the survey was voluntary.
The adjudicator determines that Cancer Care Ontario has responded adequately to the complaint and there are no reasonable grounds to conduct a review. As a result, she declines to conduct a review and she dismisses the complaint.