VIRTUES (Virtual Integrated Reliable Transformative User-Driven E-health System) is a CANet-developed, leading-edge, virtual care and data platform that provides a cloud-based, patient-controlled, secure, electronic health record that hosts current and past personal health data that is assembled, integrated and interpreted for the patients and caregivers.
This platform envisioned and designed by patients and physicians has been approved for use in Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec, which includes privacy impact reviews and research ethics board approval in these provinces.
Central to the VIRTUES platform are:
(1) the amalgamation of data from various sources;
(2) the collection of ongoing and real-time data in a secured manner; and,
(3) the integration of data in a meaningful manner for patients, their caregivers, and healthcare providers of choice.
The patient has the ultimate ownership of the data. The VIRTUES platform provides the patient the opportunity to express their personal needs, to obtain personalized education of their arrhythmia condition and its consequences, and to participate in the management of their health condition. Each of these goals are accomplished in a virtual space, in the comfort of the patient’s home and community.
VIRTUES is compliant with all Canadian healthcare privacy laws.
The VIRTUES infrastructure maintains PHIPA compliance with data-at-rest and in-transit encryption, firewall services, data backup services, and data replication to a second site for disaster recovery capabilities. The VIRTUES service delivery infrastructure is located within a tier 3 data centre that maintains all standard security and operational certifications.
VIRTUES maintains ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, and SOC II certifications and federal government security clearance level of “Secret” for data sets that require that level of protection. The infrastructure is hosted by ThinkON, a Canadian organization with established security practices that have been reviewed by both ISO and SOC II auditors.
VIRTUES is also unique in comparison to other virtual health care models as it is built using Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards describing data formats and elements for exchanging electronic health records in hospital systems. The standard was created by the Health Level Seven (HL7) International health-care standards organization. To learn more about VIRTUES privacy and security, click here.