Omnimed

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

A cyberattack has exposed personal information at one of the West Island’s largest medical facilities, leaving patients and medical professionals seeking answers about their sensitive data.

Brunswick Medical Centre in Pointe-Claire confirmed that unauthorized actors breached their systems on March 24, gaining access to sensitive data belonging to patients, staff members, and physicians. The announcement came nearly three weeks after the initial breach, a delay the clinic claims was necessary to secure their systems while maintaining essential medical services.

“We can confirm that an unauthorized actor accessed and took personal information and health information of members of our community from our servers,” the clinic said. The facility noted that most patient data was not affected.

In a statement, Vince Trevisonno, the CEO of Brunswick Medical Centre, confirmed that Omnimed – the external platform housing Electronic Medical Record data, including health insurance numbers, phone numbers and email addresses – was not affected during the breach. The clinic does not yet know the total number of patients affected or what health information was accessed, and they are not aware of any data being leaked or sold.

Cybersecurity expert Rajat Sharma CEO of CWS Solutions told The Suburban that transparency is key when private information is compromised. “In the medical industry they have PHIPA compliance. The idea is have to have an incident response plan and according to this they have to inform users that they have been breeched so they can take necessary precautions on their end. The clinic should present an incident response advisory to patients — such as identity insurance and other modes of protecting their identities. It’s not a requirement but it is a moral obligation to be helpful to those who are impacted. We already struggle with lack of feeling cared for in medical industry in Quebec. They should also tell the public what they are doing to secure the system. They stopped it early so kudos to them — that is excellence in itself and they did a good job getting the information out quickly. But now they need to present the contingency plan.”

The medical centre has alerted authorities, including the Commission of access to information, Santé Québec, the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the Quebec College of Physicians, the West Island health authority and law enforcement. “Other groups of individuals may also have been impacted, and we will ensure they are notified as soon as our analysis allows,” the clinic stated.

The facility’s endoscopy department experienced temporary disruptions, with some appointments postponed for one day due to the incident. The clinic has implemented what it describes as “comprehensive measures” to prevent future incidents, while an investigation with cybersecurity experts continues. n