TORONTO, Jan. 28, 2026 /CNW/ - To mark Data Privacy Day, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC) hosted a public event on Trustworthy AI in Health: The Promise, Perils, and Protections, where it released new guidance to support the responsible adoption of AI scribes in the health sector.
AI scribes can help health care providers reduce administrative burden and enhance the quality of interactions between health care providers and their patients. But if these tools are not used responsibly, they can also introduce serious risks to privacy, security, and human rights.
AI Scribes: Key Considerations for the Health Sector helps health professionals take a privacy-first approach, focused on essential governance and accountability measures to protect personal health information and reduce risk of bias and inaccuracies. The guidance, together with a companion checklist, provide practical how-to information for developers, procurers and users of AI systems to consider throughout the AI lifecycle. They set out clear expectations and best practices to ensure compliance with Ontario's health privacy law, mitigate risks of harm, and ultimately, preserve patient trust.
"Trust remains at the core of a patient-centered health system. Without trust, innovation will fall short of all its hopes and promises," said Patricia Kosseim, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. "Health providers must put in place the core privacy, governance, and accountability measures needed before introducing new AI tools into their practice, if they want to earn the social licence to use them and keep patients onside as willing and equal partners in their own care."
The release of our guidance today coincides with new AI scribes guidance from our colleagues at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, reflecting a greater regulatory focus on AI accountability and clearer expectations for the responsible adoption of AI scribes.
The IPC's new guidance also aligns with recently released joint Principles for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence, developed by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and the Ontario Human Rights Commission. The principles emphasize that AI systems, like AI scribes, must be valid and reliable, safe, privacy protective, human rights affirming, transparent and accountable.
Learn more:
- AI Scribes: Key Considerations for the Health Sector
- AI Scribes: Checklist of Key Considerations for the Health Sector
- Principles for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence
- Artificial intelligence in health care: Balancing innovation with privacy (Info Matters podcast)
SOURCE Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario
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