“Identity federation is a key enabler in delivering public services. By using Active Directory Federation Services 2.0, we can start right away by using existing IT infrastructure.”
Patricia Wiebe, Senior Identity Architect, Province of British Columbia


Business needs
The Province of British Columbia, Canada, delivers public services to its citizens through public and private sector partners. One such organization is the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCH), which provides healthcare in the Vancouver area. VCH developed an eHealth Viewer Web-based application to view patient health records stored in central provincial information systems.

The province needed a solution that would enable healthcare workers to more securely share patient health records with healthcare workers in other regions of the province. Traditionally, implementing new systems means issuing new user accounts and passwords. Instead, the province wanted to use federation technology to connect multiple health authorities across distributed networks, specifically to leverage existing user accounts and passwords.

Solution
The province decided to implement Active Directory Federation Services 2.0. VCH paired it with Active Directory services and integrated Windows Identity Foundation in the eHealth Viewer application.

Beginning in summer 2010, 3,000 VCH staff will access the application through federated claims. Work is also underway to implement Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 at other regional health authorities to enable access for their users.

Benefits
By implementing Active Directory Federation Services 2.0, the Province of British Columbia:

• Took advantage of existing Active Directory user accounts and passwords, as well as infrastructure and account management processes.
• Set the stage to implement identity federation across broader public and private sector organizations.