MyHealth Records

MyHealth Records is available to Albertans that are at least 14 years of age and have an Alberta-issued Driver’s License or Alberta-issued Identification Card with an up-to-date address.

MyHealth Records (MHR) currently allows its users (14 and over) the ability to create and access their own records. For those youth that decide to create an account, they will have full control of their records just like any other MyHealth Records adult user. Only users themselves are able to provide another person access to their records by using the sharing feature that allows users to invite and electronically “share” some or all of their MyHealth Records. The user is the only one that has control of this feature.

My Personal Records (MPR) is an online application that allows Albertans to access their key personal health information derived from Alberta’s provincial electronic health record, Alberta Netcare.

Currently, available information includes immunizations, dispensed medications from pharmacies and most lab results, including COVID-19 test results. It also allows users to track and manage their health and wellness data and to share their information electronically or to print reports. The Province continues to expand the information available to Albertans in MPR.

Yes. You will need to create a MyAlberta Digital ID and complete the first step of verification online. Once this step is completed, you will be able to immediately access MyHealth Records for a 90-day grace period while you wait to receive your verification code in the mail. To continue to access your most recent information in MyHealth Records past the 90 days, you need to complete your MyAlberta Digital ID verification once you receive the mailed verification code.

Albertans who are patients of Alberta Health Services (AHS) and have visited an AHS facility that is using Connect Care can use MyAHS Connect to securely access their AHS Connect Care record. Connect Care is AHS’ Clinical Information System that maintains the AHS record of care. Using MyAHS Connect, AHS patients are able to view their lab and diagnostic imaging results and to interact with their Connect Care healthcare team. Parents or guardians of AHS patients under 18 years can see the minor patient’s MyAHS Connect record via a proxy access after it is enabled by an appropriate AHS provider.

Effective February 1, 2021, we expanded the benefits of My Personal Records so registered users will be able to access most of their available lab test results from any computer, tablet or smart phone.

This change is being made to provide Albertans with more access to their health information, and as an additional safety net for patient care within the system.

Lab results ordered from all sites in Alberta, including labs ordered during inpatient and emergency visits, will be included.

You can access your tests results as soon as they are available – generally within 24 hours. This includes latest COVID-19 test results.

In some cases, you may have access to results before the ordering provider receives them. Physicians and other providers will continue to have access to results information through their usual channels and may not see your results until the next clinical day. If you have clinical questions that cannot wait please call 811.

Once the changes are in place, new users will see an 18-month retrospective view of any lab results slated for release. Existing users will not have labs added retroactively, but they will be able to see the expanded lab results moving forward.

If you have any questions, please discuss these with your ordering health care provider. Please confirm clinic hours with your ordering health care provider.

• You may watch videos on commonly used features that walk you through the "How To" of MyHealth Records in detail.

The MyHealth Alberta web site, is a trusted source of health information. Clicking on a link in a test result will bring up a clinical abstract about that test from MyHealth.Alberta.ca. MyAHS Connect also has some direct links to the MyHealth Alberta website.

MyHealth Records Toll-Free Support at 1-844-401-4016 if you

• Need help setting up your MyAlberta Digital ID
• Need help signing up for or using MyHealth Records (My Personal Records and MyAHS Connect)
• Have health questions and want to talk to a Health Link nurse

MyHealth Records/My Personal Records support

• Monday to Friday - 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (not including national and provincial holidays)
• E-mail: myhealthrecords@gov.ab.ca

MyAlberta Digital ID support

• Monday to Friday - 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (not including national and provincial holidays)
• E-mail: myalbertaid@gov.ab.ca

MyAHS Connect support

• Monday to Friday - 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (not including national and provincial holidays)
• E-mail: myAHSConnect.Support@ahs.ca

My Personal Records is an online application that allows Albertans to access their key personal health information derived from Alberta’s provincial electronic health record, Alberta Netcare.

Information currently available includes immunizations, dispensed medications from pharmacies and most lab results, including COVID-19 test results. It also allows users to track and manage their health and wellness data and to share their information electronically or to print reports. The Province continues to expand the information available to Albertans in MPR.

Albertans who are patients of Alberta Health Services (AHS) and have visited an AHS facility that is using Connect Care can use MyAHS Connect to securely access their AHS Connect Care record. Connect Care is AHS’ Clinical Information System that maintains the AHS record of care. Using MyAHS Connect, AHS patients are able to view their lab and diagnostic imaging results and to interact with their Connect Care healthcare team. Parents or guardians of AHS patients under 18 years can see the minor patient’s MyAHS Connect record via a proxy access after it is enabled by an appropriate AHS provider.

By the end of September 2021, nearly all lab results available in Netcare will be released immediately to Alberta Health’s MyHealth Records (MHR), in the My Personal Records (MPR) application. Including those results previously made available in MPR, by the end of August 2021, the following results will be viewable as soon as they are released by the lab:

• About 95% of the most commonly-ordered discrete results were released on February 1, 2021.
• All remaining test results available in Netcare, including complex results in pathology will be available by late August 2021. The scope of genetics test to be made available by late August is still being determined

Click here for a list of the specific tests that will be viewable in MPR.

MyAHS Connect is aligning their lab result release strategy with MPR. As of June 15, 2021, the existing five-day delay in release to patients of certain lab results will be removed. Lab results will be released in real time to patients. The five-day delay of the release diagnostic imaging, cardiology and endoscopy reports will continue.

This change is being made to provide Albertans with more access to their health information, and as an additional safety net for patient care within the system. This change has been approved by the Health Information Executive Committee, which has representatives from Alberta Health, Alberta Health Services, Alberta Medical Association, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, Alberta College of Pharmacy, Alberta College of Family Physicians, College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta, Primary Care, and the Public.

Many organizations and jurisdictions, including British Columbia and Ontario, immediately release all information to patients, resulting in high patient satisfaction. Releasing results immediately has shown increases in patients’ level of engagement and sense of empowerment regarding their own health (BC Excelleris Study, Impacts of direct patient access to laboratory results, 2015). While it is reasonable to expect that immediate release of some test results will cause patient anxiety, it is important to recognize that the waiting associated with an unknown result also causes anxiety, and that receiving high-stakes tests results during a visit does not give a patient time to prepare. Advice from patient advocates is that the pros of immediate test results outweigh the cons.

Lab results ordered from all sites in Alberta, including labs ordered during inpatient and emergency visits, will be included in MPR. Only labs that are not performed in province, such as some referred genetic tests or pathology, will not be displayed. Predictive neurologic genetic testing is also excluded.

Once the changes are in place, new users will see an 18-month retrospective view of any lab results slated for release. Existing users will not have labs added retroactively, but they will be able to see the expanded lab results moving forward.

As of June 15, 2021, both MPR and MyAHS Connect users will see incorporated lab results, including hospital results, immediately upon release.
Diagnostic imaging, cardiology and endoscopy reports are not available yet in MPR. These reports are currently available to AHS patients via MyAHS Connect after a five-day delay.

Lab results visible in MyAHS Connect will include legacy data from source systems in alignment with the Connect Care conversion strategy. If the lab test result is viewable in Connect Care, it is viewable in MyAHS Connect.

Nearly all lab test results will be viewable in both MPR and MyAHS Connect.

• Albertans age 14 and over, who have a valid Alberta Driver’s Licence or an Alberta Identity Card, will be able to set up an MPR account. Only patients that have been set up through contact with an AHS provider using Connect Care will have access to MyAHS Connect.
• MPR users will have to check within MPR to see if results are available. MyAHS Connect users will receive notification when new results are present.
• MyAHS Connect allows the patient’s Connect Care team to comment on their lab results within MyAHS Connect.

Ultimately, patients that have access to both portals may choose to view their results in either one.

After the changes, patients will have immediate access to more of their own information. Most studies of direct lab results release to patients show minimal change to workload for providers. However, providers may notice some changes in their patterns of work. For example, they may receive fewer calls from some types of patients, but more calls from others. Alberta Health will raise awareness and educate Albertans on MyHealth Records registration, technical support and whom to contact for interpretation of their results and health records.

Yes, you may need to consider giving patients more information about the implications of different results when initially ordering a test. A small investment of time up front discussing expected results may save you and your clinic staff future work. For example, you may wish to let a patient know that a PSA result that is high on a screening test would not necessarily mean they have cancer. Similarly, if ordering the same PSA in a post prostatectomy patient, you may wish to let them know that the expected result is near zero, and that a “normal” range result is actually abnormal for them.

For more complex results especially, you may wish to let the patient know that they may see the results before you do, the expected wait until the results return, and the expected length of time that you may need to evaluate the meaning of the test with other members of the care team before you will be ready to interpret it for the patient, if applicable.

Patients may already have requisitions for lab tests that will be completed before these changes go into effect. These patients will not be able to benefit from pre-test counselling and consideration of how best to manage their concerns is needed.

The ordering provider has the responsibility for reviewing results and addressing them with the patient. Unless specific arrangements have been made with another provider, responsibility for lab follow up resides with the ordering provider. Providers will have to use their discretion when answering questions about tests they did not order. If it is in their scope of practice and they are certain what the interpretation of the result is, they may choose to communicate this to the patient.

If there is any doubt about the meaning of the results, or if the provider is uncomfortable discussing these results with the patient, then the patient should be directed back to the ordering provider for additional information or interpretation.

Please be especially careful about interpreting genetic results that you did not order – the knowledge about risks associated with various genetic changes, especially variants of uncertain significance (VUS), can change rapidly, and interpretation by a certified geneticist is recommended when they were the ordering provider.

Physicians and other providers will continue to have access to results information through their usual channels. In some cases, patients may have access to their results before the provider receives them, particularly if the provider relies on paper or fax delivery. Through information visible on the MPR website and via the MyHealth Records Help Support Line (1-844-401-4016), patients will be advised that providers may not have access to results on the same schedule they themselves do. Patients will be informed that providers may not see results until their next clinical day and that consultation between care providers may be required to support the interpretation of results, before they are able to have an informed discussion with their patients. For some results, 811 may be able to assist patients with health information, but more complex results will require discussion between patients and care providers.

Providers should make clinic operating hours available, for example on an answering machine or a public website.

All results available to patients through MyHealth Records will also be available on Alberta Netcare for providers to review, should the need arise.

Not at this time. Currently, when Albertans sign up for MyHealth records, user consent is not obtained for MyHealth Records to share this information with providers.

Providers who use Connect Care can see an icon that shows if a patient has MyAHS Connect.

Alberta has created the MyHealth.Alberta.ca web site, a trusted source of health information.Clicking on a link in a test result in MPR will bring up a clinical abstract about that test from MyHealth.Alberta.ca. MyAHS Connect also has some direct links to the MyHealth.Alberta.ca site, or patients can search it themselves.

Albertans can also call the MyHealth Records Support Line at 1-844-401-4016, where they can choose from the menu options to connect to

• The support team for technical assistance between 8:15am – 4:30pm (MT) Monday - Friday (excluding weekends and statutory holidays)
• Health Link - 811 available at all times 24 hours, 7 days per week to talk with health professionals about any health-related inquiries including test results.

Callers who reach a technical team agent asking health-related questions will be advised to call 811.

Click here for more information on MyHealth Records Help.