Can I Use NetCare in Research?
The Alberta Netcare Portal (ANP) is a health information repository provided by Alberta Health that contains the secure and confidential health information of all Albertans. The ANP is available to all recognized health care providers to aid in providing a health care service to their patients.
Researchers are required to adhere to the Alberta NetCare Information Exchange Protocol ("IEP"), the Health Information Act, and the policies of participating custodians, when using NetCare for research purposes.
Information from NetCare may be eligible for use in research only where such research requires explicit consent to participate from the individual who is the subject of the information. This is a rule specific to the IEP for NetCare. Researchers who are doing a study where they have requested and obtained a waiver of consent from the REB to conduct the research, cannot use NetCare as a source of data for the study (i.e. retrospective chart review where no consent is obtained from the people whose records you will be reviewing).
More information related to the use of NetCare in research should be obtained directly from the Institution who has oversight over the records that you will be accessing (ie. AHS, Covenant Health etc).