Alberta Netcare (formerly Wellnet) is the province of Alberta's public

Electronic Health Record An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically stored health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared throu ...

used to store patient information so that it is easily accessible to

healthcare professionals A health professional, healthcare professional, or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a nurse, physician (suc ...

Users

There are three main categories of Netcare users: * Health service providers (

physicians A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

) * Diagnostic laboratories * Drug dispensing locations (

pharmacies Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

) Netcare allows authorized physicians to view the medical records of patients. Pharmacies can use the service to verify prescription details, and to upload medication dispensations.

Information stored and accessed

The patient's health record is stored on Netcare. Information like

immunizations Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an infectious agent (known as the immunogen). When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body, called ''non-sel ...

ECG Electrocardiography is the process of producing an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), a recording of the heart's electrical activity. It is an electrogram of the heart which is a graph of voltage versus time of the electrical activity of the hear ...

results, diagnostic images and reports, written medical reports (e.g. surgery reports, consultations, hospital admissions), diagnostic lab testing results (e.g.

blood tests A blood test is a laboratory analysis performed on a blood sample that is usually extracted from a vein in the arm using a hypodermic needle, or via fingerprick. Multiple tests for specific blood components, such as a glucose test or a cholester ...

urine tests A urine test is any medical test performed on a urine specimen. The analysis of urine is a valuable diagnostic tool because its composition reflects the functioning of many body systems, particularly the kidneys and urinary system, and specimens a ...

, blood bank info), allergies and intolerances (drug and food allergies, food intolerances), drug checker (checks the prescribed medication and dose to see if it interacts with other medications or is unsuitable for people with certain allergies), prescription history, and general patient information (e.g. name, birthdate, personal health number, address, phone number).

Implementation

Netcare messaging is performed with

HL7 Health Level Seven or HL7 refers to a set of international standards for transfer of clinical and administrative data between software applications used by various healthcare providers. These standards focus on the application layer, which is "la ...

-encoded

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

messages. Messages are sent and received over a

HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It is used for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protocol is enc ...

connection.

Security

Netcare uses a

two-factor authentication Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...

protocol involving a username/password combination, and an RSA SecurID Key Fob for authentication. Users who are within the trusted networks of the Government of Alberta (e.g. hospitals) do not require the RSA key for login. The SSL certificate for the remote login portal is TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, 112 bit keys, TLS 1.2.

Breaches and attacks

From May 15–29, 2009 a Trojan virus was detected on several Alberta Health and Netcare systems, compromising the privacy of 11,582 Edmonton area patients.{{Cite news, url=http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/275665, title=Computer virus infects Alberta's Health Services network, date=2009-07-09, access-date=2017-03-26

References

External links

Alberta Netcare official site Alberta Netcare Remote Login PortalAlberta Privacy Commissioner report on the May breach
Electronic health records Telehealth Health in Alberta