Alberta Health is sponsoring a new voluntary service that can help physicians securely message with patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. BrightSquid is the selected provider for "MHR Secure Mail" and Alberta Health is making it available at no cost to participating physicians until July 31, 2020.
While any Canadian physician can sign up, the target audience for the Alberta Health promotion is physicians who do not already have a patient portal or other secure communication service available to their patients. There is no requirement to use MHR Secure Mail, or to use it in preference to other secure communication tools.
Physicians sign up for the BrightSquid service and invite their patients to participate. A link to BrightSquid is available via MyHealthRecords, which is also where patients can launch MyAHS Connect for secure communications with physicians who use Connect Care as their record of care.
Physicians using AHS information systems should continue to use the secure clinical messaging services provided by AHS, with priority given to communication tools integrated with clinical information systems. Future postings (or in our FAQ Channel) will address questions about how Connect Care physicians can support patients seeking clarity about secure clinical communications in Alberta.