FROM THE REGISTRAR’S DESK
We don’t share
information where
the requester wants
it for commercial
purposes.
8
DIALOGUE • Issue 3, 2014
ponent that will see us ensure that
our decision-making aligns with
the College’s duties, mandate and
priorities.
In approving the new data-sharing
strategy, a number of consequential
decisions were made. Because the
new decision tool will be used to
evaluate all data-sharing requests,
the Release of Physician Information in Batch Form policy was
rescinded as it is no longer required
when considering requests for large
volumes of physician information
from the public register. Under the
policy, physicians – through the annual renewal form – could opt-out
of having their public information
shared, under most circumstances,
by the CPSO.
Let me reassure you that the
rescinding of this policy does not
make physicians more vulnerable
to being put on mailing lists they’d
rather not be on. We don’t share
information where the requester
wants it for commercial purposes.
As well, there are built-in safeguards
in the process – including a datasharing agreement – to ensure that
physician information will never be
misused.
This is an important issue. I urge
you to read the article on page 19
for more information about our
new data-sharing strategy.
****
In this issue, we also discuss the
strategic direction that Council has
set for the College over the next
three years with its approval of four
initiatives that will be our primary
area of focus.
As part of this new stage of the
strategic plan, the initiatives will
be used to strengthen our core
regulatory functions and achieve
our vision of Quality Professionals,
Healthy System and Public Trust.
The four strategic initiatives are:
the Quality Management Partnership (QMP); the Transparency
Initiative; Education; and Data
Management. We have written
much about the Transparency Initiative and the QMP in these pages
over the last few issues, and we will
continue to do so.
In regards to the Education strategy initiative, ultimately, the College
will have a mechanism to measure
and understand how educational
activities contribute to changes in
physician behaviour. You will read
much more about this initiative in
coming issues of Dialogue.
As for quality data, well, that is
the key enabler of the QMP, Education and Transparency strategies.
This initiative represents a fundamental re-evaluation of how the
College collects, manages, uses and
releases data in order to support our
strategic initiatives. The new datasharing strategy discussed earlier in
this letter is just a small part of this
initiative.
As the health-care system evolves
and expectations change, we will
focus on those initiatives that will
position us well for the future. I
urge you all to read the article on
page 29.
Thank You.