Ontario's project Spark that will give residents and companies access to patient health records raises security questions

Ontario’s Project Spark is an initiative to make healthcare data more accessible to providers, researchers, companies, and to citizens. One of the proposed benefits of Project Spark is that, with all of the health records in the same place, the province claims that it’s easier for people to keep track of their own medical histories and stay better informed of their conditions and risks. The team behind Project Spark has yet to issue clear information on how it intends to handle data privacy and how it will choose and prioritize among the companies and organizations vying for access to its health records. Observers warn that if the government fails to properly protect patient privacy, Ontarians whose data falls into the wrong hands could face dire consequences. To be sure that data only goes to those who will use it responsibly, they warn the government will need to carefully vet every application to access its health data.