On Monday, July 21 2014 we are hosting a meeting as part of our Perspectives series to explore the views of the community on the topic of security and privacy needs in digital health innovations.

The goal of our Perspectives series is to gather experts and non-experts together to explore complex issues in digital healthcare innovation.

Our first Perspectives event was held last July to discuss of mobile health tools for older adults. Through a series of presentations and discussions with healthcare providers, developers, patient advocates and researchers, one of the big issues that emerged was the need for mobile health tools that are both secure and accessible for patients with complex health issues. In other words, we may expect tools to have strong passwords but not so long or complex that patients living with low vision, memory impairment or low literacy cannot access the tools.

In the spring we secured funding from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to explore ways to secure mobile patient health data while also ensuring patients can easily access their own data when they need it.

If you would like to join us, please contact Kate Mercer at kathryn.mercer@uwaterloo.ca or at 519-888-4567 ext 21357.