Cybersecurity Check-Up 2025 Edition: Strategies to Keep Your Practice Secure

Ariane Siegel

Ariane joined OntarioMD as General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer in 2016. She has been recognized internationally for her achievements in privacy and security. She was recently awarded the 2023 Women in IT Award for Canada’s Security Leader of the Year. She has also been recognized by Who’s Who as a global leader in technology law, privacy and data protection. Ariane provides OntarioMD with strategic and legal advice. Her current focus is on technology and legal issues with respect to use of Artificial Intelligence in Primary Care. Through her leadership, OntarioMD provides health system partners with a practical perspective on privacy and security from the lens of community-based physician practices. Ariane developed OntarioMD’s Privacy & Security Training Module for the Ontario health-care sector and a second Module focused on virtual care.

Prior to joining OntarioMD, Ariane supported global corporations with technology law advice as a Partner in Canada’s largest law firm and from her own practice. She worked as a Senior Investigator for the federal Privacy Commissioner, Law Clerk to the Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice and as Constitutional Counsel to the Attorney General of Ontario. Ariane was part of the launch team for Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile Canada.

Sharon Domb, MD

Dr. Sharon Domb is a family physician, the Physician IT Lead at Sunnybrook Family Practice, and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. As a Peer Leader with OntarioMD since 2009, she has provided guidance to numerous other academic and community groups on their EMR implementations and enhanced functionality. She has served as the Co-Chair of the EMR Users Group at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, and has been a member of numerous digital health committees, both nationally and provincially. With over 20 years of clinical experience in the academic environment, Dr. Domb is well-versed with the numerous factors that contribute to complex EMR implementations, including educational requirements, custom interfaces with hospital IT systems, and integrating with hospital IT policies.

John Solomos

John Solomos’ journey in the world of IT services for health care began while he was employed at Dell. A call from Ontario MD requesting computer hardware for a government-funded initiative to transition medical clinics from paper records to electronic medical records (EMR) made him realize that Canadian Health Care was ready for a major technological transition. John recognized immediately that he wanted to play a part in helping to revolutionize Canadian Healthcare. The next morning, he drove downtown and incorporated BlueBird IT Solutions.

Initially contemplating entry into the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) sector, John soon realized that the competition had already secured OntarioMD approval. The lengthy development, testing, and approval processes rendered this path impractical. However, during the formulation of BlueBird’s business plan, a crucial issue surfaced—a notable absence of IT firms specializing in designing, implementing, and supporting the essential technological infrastructures for EMR adoption by medical clinics. Those early days were marked by other IT companies’ failure to comprehend the unique needs of medical practices, overcharging for their services, and inadequate support and security, leading to subpar EMR experiences.

In response, John devised a strategy to provide cost-effective standardized hardware and services to medical clinics, propelling BlueBird into a pioneering role in facilitating the widespread adoption of Electronic Medical Records among countless medical practices.

John’s vision was to ensure that high-quality IT services, typically reserved for enterprise, were accessible to all medical clinics, irrespective of their size, budget, or chosen EMR platform. BlueBird’s unwavering commitment to these principles earned it a reputation for flexibility and unwavering supportiveness. Consequently, BlueBird rapidly established itself as a trusted and respected partner among medical professionals, OntarioMD, and EMR vendors.

As a result, referrals began pouring in for BlueBird. Emerging from its modest origins in John’s basement, BlueBird evolved into Canada’s foremost Healthcare Managed Services Provider. Yet, John and BlueBird’s core goal remained unaltered: to provide peace of mind to medical practitioners regarding their IT infrastructure while empowering them to prioritize what matters most—the well-being of their patients.

Andrew Drummond

Andrew Drummond recently took up the position of Director of Health Policy at the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, where he leads a team of policy advisors who engage in policy consultations and regulatory development. Andrew and his team also work in support of the Commissioner’s strategic priority of “Trust in Digital Health”, which aims to promote public confidence in the digital health care system by guiding custodians to respect the privacy and access rights of Ontarians, and supporting the pioneering use of personal health information for research and analytics to the extent it serves the public good. Previously, Andrew held multiple positions at the Information Management Strategy and Policy Branch of Ontario’s Ministry of Health, where he worked on numerous PHIPA legislative and regulatory reforms. Prior to his time with the Ministry of Health, he held multiple positions at both the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta. Andrew holds a BA (Hons) and MA from the University of Alberta.