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Privacy at POGO

POGO Mission

POGO improves the circumstances of Ontario's children with cancer, their families and caregivers through the development and implementation of an accessible, well-integrated provincial childhood cancer system.

 

POGO and Personal Health Information

The Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario received status as a “45.1 entity” within Ontario's privacy act, the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA), in November 2004. This status enables POGO to use personal health information for the "purpose of analyzing and/or compiling statistical information with respect to the management of, evaluation or monitoring of, the allocation of resources to or planning for all or part of the health system, including the delivery of services" (PHIPA, 2004). Please refer to the  POGO Privacy Brochure  for a description of some of the analyses that POGO carries out. 

Under this legislation, POGO and other researchers may also conduct research using personal health information. POGO and researchers must comply with section 44 of the same act (PHIPA, 2004), which outlines strict legal requirements that researchers must follow in order to use and disclose personal health information within POGO’s database, POGONIS (Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario Networked Information System). POGO is responsible for ensuring that these requirements are met, tracked, and audited. 
 

POGO Commitment

POGO´s mission is complemented by its promise to respect personal privacy, safeguard the confidentiality of personal health information and provide a secure environment for the databases it manages.

POGO meets this commitment by ensuring:

• data confidentiality and security
• principles and policies are in place for the protection of personal health data
• strict policies which limit access to data
• security measures: organizational, technological and physical
• processes for review of privacy and security policies and procedures by the Data Security Committee
• mandatory staff training
• a strict approval process for research proposals
• requirements that all staff and third parties sign a pledge of confidentiality
• regular review of its policies are compatible with current health information legislation and protection practices.