Diagnostic Imaging Common Service PIA Summary

Date of PIA Report: March 2014

Date PIA Summary Last Reviewed and Updated: December 2, 2025 (Rebranding)

The following is a summary of the above-referenced privacy impact assessment (PIA), including a brief background, key findings, and risks and recommendations as applicable. See our Privacy Contact page to find information on how to contact the Ontario Health Privacy Office should you have any questions.

Background

eHealth Ontario will be receiving diagnostic imaging reports from the province’s four regional diagnostic imaging repositories and making them available to authorized health care providers in Ontario. eHealth Ontario will also support hospitals and health care providers in managing consent directives and responding to requests for access and correction of records in Digital Imaging Common Services.

Implementation will result in the following benefits:

• eliminates unnecessary patient travel
• reduces wait times and length of stay thanks to faster exam reports and clinical decisions by physicians and specialists
• reduces duplicate and unnecessary exams
• eliminates the need to physically transfer images or compact disks (CDs) to the specialist
• eliminates unnecessary exposure to radiation

Key Findings

The Digital Imaging Common Services initiative will enable authorized providers access to their patients’ diagnostic imaging reports by way of a portal-based access channel. Regional diagnostic imaging repositories will submit diagnostic imaging reports to eHealth Ontario’s central document sharing repository. The reports in the regional diagnostic imaging repositories will be indexed and stored in a centralized provincial document sharing registry and repository.

The privacy impact assessment concludes that eHealth Ontario has authority under section 6.2 of O.Reg. 329/04 to operate Digital Imaging Common Services for purposes of creating and maintaining an electronic health record. eHealth Ontario will act as a PHIPA agent when providing operational support to hospitals and health care providers for consent management and assisting in responding to requests for access and correction of records.

The privacy impact assessment recommends measures that will ensure eHealth Ontario is in compliance with applicable legislation, as well as its policies, procedures and best practices.

Risks and Recommendations

The privacy impact assessment provides the following recommendations:

• eHealth Ontario to enter into agreements with participating sites contributing to and accessing Digital Imaging Common Service.
• eHealth Ontario to finalize criteria for searching patients in Digital Imaging Common Service.
• eHealth Ontario to develop plain language description on Digital Imaging Common Service and make it publicly available.
• eHealth Ontario to finalize Digital Imaging Common Services policies and applicable processes.

eHealth Ontario is currently in the process of implementing each of these recommendations.