Electronic mail is widely used within the health sector. Most health care providers and patients have email addresses. As tempting as it may be to send personal health information via email, there are a number of risks to be aware of. Alberta Health services (AHS) provides health care providers with the opportunity to transmit clinical information via secure email, including encrypted email to external addresses. Relevant policies, procedures and best practice guides are summarized via the links to the left.
AHS securely transfers email messages and attachments between any sender and receiver with AHS email addresses (@albertahealthservices.ca, @ahs.ca). AHS mail can also be used to send secure email from an AHS sender to a receiver without an AHS email address. Simply add “!Private” (note exclamation mark and capitalization) to the email subject line. Test this before using regularly.