Sending on behalf of Dr. Nicole Boutilier, Executive Vice President of Medicine and Clinical Operations

Tomorrow, the Province will announce that Nova Scotians have access to certain information within their online health records through the YourHealthNS app. At that time, providers and their teams will receive more information and resources. 

Nova Scotia Health is committed to responding to the feedback we hear from our patients. The Nova Scotia Our Care report made it clear that patients want their online health records to be freely accessible so that they can be more engaged in their own healthcare. 

The decision to expand the initiative comes after a successful pilot that ran from January to April 2024. 

The pilot provided more than 13,000 patients with access to their online health records and engaged 15 family medicine physicians and seven nurse practitioners across six primary care clinic teams.  

The evaluation results from patients and providers were overwhelmingly positive. 

Providers and teams reported minimal impact on their existing roles, responsibilities, and workflow, and responding to patient questions was manageable with the materials provided by Nova Scotia Health. 

Nova Scotia Health identified improvement areas and solutions based on feedback from providers. 

Patients reported satisfaction in several areas including 60 per cent of patients feeling more involved in their care, and 35 per cent of patients felt better prepared for their appointment. 

As we continue to move this initiative forward, we do so in partnership with Doctors Nova Scotia and the Department of Health and Wellness. 

We also wish to assure you that healthcare data will be protected at all costs. We have made this a priority. 

The YourHealthNS app will not contain any personal health information. The data will be stored on a secure cloud-based server that has been tested and passed multiple privacy and security assessments. 

Personally identifiable health data will only be accessible to the patient and to a very small group of employees who must access the data for the sole purpose of maintaining the system, performing data quality assessments, and ensuring the data is available to patients who choose to access it. These employees are bound by confidentiality agreements. 

We have very strict security measures in place to limit who can access the server. This includes oversight and monitoring controls of the system like logging and auditing capabilities.  

The data and access to the data is subject to the Personal Health Information Act and the regulations under the Act, which govern how personal health information and data may be accessed and used and how it must be protected.  

The Personal Health Information Act requires data to be protected from theft, loss, any unauthorized access, and any form of misuse.  

The Electronic Health Record regulations require any personally identifiable information to be aggregated and de-identified before it reaches the department, where it can be used for the purpose of health system planning. This is required by law. The department will not have access to personally identifiable patient information. 

Print materials will be distributed to primary care providers by mail in the coming weeks, and digital materials will be available at physicians.nshealth.ca/yhns tomorrow. These materials will support providers and their teams to better understand the initiative and communicate about it with patients. 

Additionally, we will plan for opportunities with Doctors Nova Scotia to allow a Q&A style webinar to ensure providers feel engaged and can ask questions. 

Thank you to the providers and clinics who took part in the pilot project. Your contributions will inform our efforts to make online records accessible to Nova Scotians.