A individual in attendance at an Ontario Dental Association meeting last evening was told, that unless email messages pertaining to patients are sent “encrypted” between colleagues, they are in essence inappropriate, perhaps illegal and tantamount to violation of the Piracy (excuse me) Privacy Act.
I have on numerous occasions tried to turn this blog into a discussion forum which is ostensibly like making a chicken a fish……not really doable with millions of dollars of nanobiologic technology (and I can’t even get a blog platform that has social media connectivity).
The Star Chamber in Ontario otherwise known as the RCDSO has not as yet MANDATED EHR and encryption for the dentists in Ontario, albeit, there is something in a missive from months back about the legality of moving radiographs.
It becomes very hard to write this entry with erudition and sophistication, because as usual, there is a serious cart before the horse construct at play here. The very few who know a lot about encryption, coding anon are going to exercise that knowledge to impact upon the very many who know next to nothing at all about what is forthcoming. CONNECTIVITY was not mandated in the province of Ontario nor was it mandated in Canada which considering it’s geographic size, and the incredible work done by Danny Williams, should have been front and center at the CDA and other provincial organizations right around the time iTrans came into existence. And it should never have been iTrans; it should have been iTransGOOGLE/NET/WHATEVER, the Internet presence for Canadian dentistry – ISP provision on up or down depending on how you view Internet as a business model.
WHAT’S MISSING IN ALL THIS IS TRANSPARENCY. You can’t bring digital into the world of a profession without realizing that you ain’t in Kansas anymore Toto. You either adjust the operational model to reflect the radical alteration in corporate hierarchy fecal matter flows down mode of operation, or you flounder and really upset people along the way. Dentistry will never see “Dental Spring” or “Occupy Alta Vista Drive” movement….which in and of itself may prove to be a bad thing.
In Ontario, there is a committee made up of dentists and others who are going to enact encryption of “communication and records” for Ontario dentists….that will come in short order for the rest of the country. Are you aware of it, the costs, the upgrades, the training, the impact on practice systems, involvement of your patients with a need for cyphers anon?……….most likely not. You’re just trying to make things stay on an even keel in a very weird time……….would that the absolute power that be understood that their role is indeed jurisdictional, but that doesn’t necessitate being high handed. I have always felt that licensing bodies should include a smiley face on their brown envelopes to ameliorate PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.
This blog has not become a discussion forum through the use of comments or otherwise. It’s unfortunate; Canadian dentists need a voice, and it’s not their associations or their licensing bodies, certainly not in the Internet era. The profession needs to be heard; in the past it was done as all political structure formulates it, elect someone to represent you and then they do as they wish or not because that’s why folks don’t get re-elected unless they learn to grease the wheels. It’s the Internet era; if we were all CONNECTED – we could vote online, advise our representatives how to vote at a committee level and moreover express how we as professional truly feel. HELL ENCRYPT THE POLLING PROCESS, that should be easy………one central receiving node……..now go do that for 17,000 practitioners who want to exchange information a’tween each others using different operating systems, platforms, applications, providers and a knowledge skill set that varies from alpha to omega…….do have fun……….
Merry Xmas
kendo
