Privacy for Canadian dental practices
Patient privacy law in Canada depends on your province. In every province, your practice stays responsible for your patients’ information. We handle it only on your behalf, only to run the service, and under a written agreement that matches your province’s law.
What every Canadian practice gets
- A written privacy agreement before go-live, with the terms your province’s law requires.
- Privacy and security information your practice can use for its own privacy review.
- Our current list of service providers, with what each one does and where it processes data.
- Practice and patient records stored with Amazon Web Services in Canada. To run calls, some of our service providers process call data in the United States.
- Notice within 72 hours if an incident affects your practice’s information.
Ontario
Law: Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA).
- Your practice is the health information custodian. We act as your agent: we handle patient information only on your behalf and only as PHIPA and your practice allow.
- Your privacy agreement with us includes the terms PHIPA expects of a custodian’s agent.
- If patient information is lost, stolen or used without authority, we tell you promptly, and within 72 hours, so you can notify patients and the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario where PHIPA requires.
- We give you the information you need to describe AI-assisted call handling in your practice’s privacy statement.
Alberta
Law: Health Information Act (HIA).
- Your practice is the custodian. We are your information manager under section 66 of the HIA, and we sign a written Information Manager Agreement with you.
- Before you use a new service like ours, your practice prepares a privacy impact assessment and submits it to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta. We give you the information about our service that your assessment needs, ready to copy in, at no charge.
- We start answering your calls only after you confirm your assessment has been submitted.
- If an incident affects your patients’ information, we tell you within 72 hours and give you what you need for the notices the HIA requires.
- We do not access Alberta Netcare.
Practising elsewhere in Canada?
Contact our Privacy Officer at privacy@dentalassist.ai. We will provide the terms your province’s law requires before you start.
Common questions
Do you sign an Information Manager Agreement for Alberta practices?
Yes. Alberta practices sign one with us before go-live.
Will you help with our privacy impact assessment?
Yes. We provide the information about our service that your assessment needs, at no charge, and answer your reviewer’s questions.
Where is our patient information stored?
With Amazon Web Services in Canada. To run calls, some of our service providers process call data in the United States. Email privacy@dentalassist.ai for our current list of service providers.
This page is general information about how DentalAssist.ai works. It is not legal advice. Your practice is responsible for its own obligations under the law that applies to it.