Cybersecurity forAlberta Medical Clinics
Your EMR holds everything the Health Information Act makes you responsible for. We secure the systems Alberta clinics actually run — Wolf, Med Access, Accuro, Healthquest, Netcare — and handle the OIPC paperwork that comes with them. Trusted by Silverado Medical Clinic in Calgary.
Where Alberta Clinics Actually Get Breached
Not zero-days. These four, over and over — each mapping to a safeguard the HIA already requires.
The EMR Is the Crown Jewel
Whether your clinic runs TELUS Health Wolf or Med Access, QHR Accuro, or Microquest Healthquest, the EMR holds every patient record you are legally responsible for. Weak passwords, shared logins, and unmonitored remote access are the standard findings — and the standard breach paths.
Affiliate Snooping Is Prosecuted
Alberta actively prosecutes healthcare workers who look up records without a work purpose. As the custodian, the physician owner answers to the OIPC for every affiliate's access — which means audit-log review can't be something nobody owns.
Phishing Hits the Front Desk First
Clinic breaches rarely start in the EMR — they start in a front-desk mailbox, a fake e-transfer notice, or a spoofed lab result. One compromised Microsoft 365 account exposes referral letters, billing exports, and everything patients ever emailed you.
PIAs Before New Tools — Including AI Scribes
The HIA requires a Privacy Impact Assessment submitted to the OIPC before you implement systems that handle health information. That includes the AI scribes, online-booking tools, and patient portals clinics are adopting fastest right now.
Clinic-Sized, Alberta-Regulated
GuardsArm works with Silverado Medical Clinic in Calgary and custodians across Alberta. Our clinic program is built around the Health Information Act and the OIPC's processes — not US HIPAA templates with the acronyms swapped. Engagements are fixed-price and sized for independent practices, and we work alongside your existing IT provider rather than replacing them.
If your practice also handles US patient data or works with US covered entities, we scope HIPAA alongside HIA — but we will never sell you the wrong statute first.
The Clinic Security Program
Start with the assessment, or with the PIA your new system needs.
Clinic Security Assessment
A fixed-price review of your EMR access controls, Microsoft 365 tenant, backups, Wi-Fi, and remote-access setup — mapped to HIA safeguard obligations and delivered with a prioritized fix list your IT provider can execute.
HIA Privacy Impact Assessments
PIAs prepared for OIPC submission when you adopt a new EMR, portal, AI scribe, or Netcare connection — structured to the OIPC requirements, with the data-flow mapping reviewers expect.
Audit-Log & Snooping Reviews
Periodic review of EMR access logs for the patterns OIPC investigators look for — after-hours access, record views without appointments, staff viewing family members — with documented findings.
24/7 Monitoring & Incident Response
Canadian SOC monitoring of your email tenant and endpoints, sized for clinic budgets, plus a breach-response procedure that meets the HIA s.60.1 notification duties if the worst happens.
The five controls we check first in every clinic
Alberta Medical Clinic Security FAQs
Common questions from Alberta physicians and clinic managers
Still Have Questions?
Our cybersecurity experts are here to help. Get personalized answers and a free security consultation.
Related Services
Fifteen Minutes Tells You Where Your Clinic Stands
A scoping call with the physician owner or clinic manager — plain answers about what you need and what you don't.