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Article History

Received: 12 September 2022

Accepted: 20 April 2023

First Online: 17 May 2023

Declarations

:

: Ethics approval for this study was obtained from the Health Sciences Research Ethics Board at The University of Toronto (Protocol number 20397). ICES is an independent, non-profit research institute whose legal status under Ontario’s health information privacy law allows it to collect and analyze health care and demographic data, without consent, for health system evaluation and improvement. All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Data was anonymized before use and administrative permission was to access the data was granted by ICES.ICES is a prescribed entity under Sect. 45 of Ontario’s Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA). Section 45 authorizes ICES to collect personal health information, without consent, for the purpose of analysis or compiling statistical information with respect to the management of, evaluation or monitoring of, the allocation of resources to or planning for all or part of the health system. Projects conducted under Sect. 45, by definition, do not require review by a Research Ethics Board. This project was conducted under Sect. 45 of PHIPA and was approved by ICES’ Privacy and Legal Office.

: Not applicable.

: None.