Confidentiality and Anonymous or De-Identified Reports

Confidentiality During Reporting

The privacy of the complainant and respondent must be respected, with all parties maintaining confidentiality to the extent possible. Only those who need to be involved to review the matter, to respond, to provide information about an incident they witnessed, or those who are requested to provide personal support to an involved party, should be informed about a discussion, disclosure, or report. 

There are circumstances where Temerty Medicine or the University may need to take action urgently, including using the submitted UTORid to identify who submitted the disclosure, without first obtaining consent. These circumstances include, but are not limited to, situations in which there is a risk of harm to yourself or others; risk of harm to a minor; sexual violence by a regulated healthcare professional; abusive, violent, or discriminatory language in the submission; or another university or legal obligation to act. We would discuss this in detail with learners who came forward directly to the LEU, including ways that the LEU will continue to support them.

Anonymous and De-Identified Reports

Learners may feel it is unsafe to report in an identified manner and they may only wish to come forward in an anonymous or deidentified manner. 

Anonymous reports are those in which the learner does not submit their name or email on the Online Disclosure Form. The Online Disclosure Form is a confidential online tool that Temerty Medicine clinical learners can use to provide information regarding any behaviour experienced or witnessed that they perceive or suspect to be mistreatment.  

As a learner, you have the option to submit this form anonymously (i.e. without providing your contact information), with the understanding that doing so may make it more difficult for us to follow up with you to make sure you get support, to ensure that we have all the necessary details, and to report back to you regarding the status of your disclosure or its outcomes. As noted above, there may be exceptional circumstances in which the LEU may need to unmask an anonymous submission and access the submitting UTORid as part of the review of a concern.

Note that you can submit an identified disclosure form to the Learner Experience Unit and book a confidential meeting with someone on our team to review your options, which may include escalating your report for review in a de-identified manner. De-Identified reports, in contrast to anonymous reports, are those in which the learner’s identity is known to the Learner Experience Unit, but is withheld at the time the LEU escalates the report for review and management. 

Please note that, if you submit your form anonymously, it may be escalated in its current form out of the LEU for review and resolution, and as part of that process it may be shared in its current form with the individual(s) identified as the source(s) of mistreatment.

Temerty Medicine’s ability to act upon anonymous and De-Identified reports may be limited, owing to its obligations to provide the respondent with a full and fair opportunity to respond to allegations made against them. 

Nonetheless, to the extent possible, these types of reports will be escalated out of the LEU for review. They may also shed important information about systemic or cultural issues in the learning environment, which may inform systems-level interventions.