Privacy Policy

1. Scope and Custodianship

Dr. Ata Family Medicine ("the Clinic", "we", "our") provides primary medical services at First Care Medical Centre, 2 Lorry Greenberg Drive, Unit 4, Ottawa, ON K1G 5H6. Dr. Ata serves as the Health Information Custodian (HIC) under the Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA). This policy outlines our management of personal data collected via our website (drata.ca) and our clinical information systems.

2. Separation of Clinical Data and Website Infrastructure

For patient safety and privacy, this website is completely disconnected from our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. We do not collect, process, or store clinical notes, medical histories, or lab requisitions on this site. Patients must not submit clinical queries or confidential medical histories via online forms. For all clinical matters, please call the clinic directly at (613) 248-8433 or speak with us during an in-person consultation.

3. Online Data Management

• Contact Forms: Web forms have been permanently disabled to prevent the inadvertent online exposure of sensitive personal health information.
• Appointment Booking: Our scheduling platform is powered by Avaros Inc., our certified EMR provider. Online scheduling is currently offline. All bookings are managed securely via our clinic telephone line.
• Functional Cookies: We set a single functional cookie to remember your language preference (English or French). We do not deploy advertising pixels, third-party cookies, or behavioral analytics software.
• Third-party embeds: Google Maps on our contact page processes IP and browser requests under Google's global privacy policies.

4. Use of Data and Access Control

Information gathered during phone bookings is used solely to verify provincial healthcare eligibility (OHIP/RAMQ), schedule consultations, and maintain clinical records. Access to this data is strictly confined to authorized medical and administrative staff bound by confidentiality agreements. We never sell, rent, or distribute patient data to third parties.

5. Security Safeguards

We employ rigorous physical, organizational, and technical safeguards to protect patient data from unauthorized access, loss, or theft. Our web connections use HTTPS/TLS encryption. We are transitioning our administrative communications to secure Google Workspace services on our clinic domain; however, please note that standard email is inherently insecure. Do not use email for confidential medical communications.

6. Retention Lifecycle

Medical records are kept in strict compliance with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) requirements—typically for a minimum of 10 years following the last documented clinical encounter, or 10 years after a minor patient reaches their 18th birthday.

7. Patient Rights and Access

In accordance with PHIPA, you have the right to request access to your clinical records, request corrections to factual errors, and withdraw or limit consent regarding the distribution of your health details. Contact our team to initiate these requests.