Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Signs Agreement with Google Health

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) is partners with Google Health to expand options for members who want to create their own PHRs. BCBSMA is the first health insurance company to sign an agreement to integrate on the Google Health platform. After the integration is complete, BCBSMA members can import their claims data into their Google Health profile safely and securely.

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Unintended Consequences of HIPAA: Impeding Biomedical Research

The privacy rule of HIPAA is having a negative impact on the advance of biomedical research and the search for treatments that benefit society, says a newly released report by the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC). HIPAA Creating Barriers to Research and Discovery describes the unintended disruptive consequences of the rule, including confusion for patients, misinterpretation by research participants, barriers to patient recruitment, and burdensome administrative procedures that increase research costs. It also offers specific recommendations to address these critical issues.

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1200 Physician Practices to Receive Incentives for EHR Use in HHS Pilot

Over a five-year period, HHS will provide financial incentives to as many as 1,200 primary care physician practices in selected communities that use certified EHRs to improve quality as measured by their performance on specific clinical quality measures. In addition to the incentive payments, bonus payments may be awarded based on a standardized survey measuring the number of EHR functionalities a physician group has incorporated into its practice. Total payments under the demonstration for all five years may be up to $58,000 per physician or $290,000 per practice.

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Sharp Healthcare Prescribes CommVault to Alleviate Backup, Recovery Pain and Reduce Administrative Issues

Sharp Healthcare has reported that it has slashed backup time in half, increased disaster recovery capabilities and reduced the risk associated with non-compliance with HIPAA regulations since deploying CommVault® Data Protection, one of the five core modules in the Simpana® 7.0 software suite.

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AMA Offers Solutions to Help Promote HIT Adoption

The AMA testified recently to the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the topic of providing solutions to help promote widespread adoption of HIT by physicians. They provided input to help shape legislation that addresses the technology and privacy concerns that many physicians currently harbor as they consider purchasing HIT.

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Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft Pilot Health Data Transfers

Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft Corp. have announced they will pilot health data transfers between Kaiser Permanente's My Health Manager and the Microsoft HealthVault consumer health platform. This pilot program is expected to unveil new strategies for expanding consumer access to online health information and management tools.

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St. Mary’s Launches EHRs

St. Mary’s Hospital has completed a conversion to EHRs in a project the hospital has named “Project Beacon.” As of May 31, the hospital's doctors and nurses can access patient information any where or any time, further enhancing the patient care received.

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Highmark Inc. Funds Physician Adoption of Health IT

Highmark Inc. has announced that it is contributing $29 million to help physicians acquire e-prescribing/e-health record technology for their practices. This initiative is an alternative to a similar program Highmark announced in 2005 in which the company contributed significant funding to promote the adoption of health IT by physicians.

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VeriChip for Access to Patient Records Decreases Emergency Care Charges

Use of the VeriChip for access to patient medical history verification significantly decreased the emergency care charges among critically injured patients in a randomized, blinded, prospective mass casualty scenario. The study, presented at the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine's annual meeting, discussed the benefits gained from providing healthcare workers with immediate access to patient medical records during a mass casualty scenario. The objective of the study was to evaluate the use of VeriChip for EMR access, and whether a patient implanted with the VeriChip would affect emergency charges in a prospective mass casualty exercise.

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Thornberry and SecureCare Offer Automated Electronic Faxing to Home Care Providers

Thornberry Limited and SecureCare Technologies (SCUC) have partnered to provide the first fully automated electronic fax system to the home care industry. The SfaxTM system eliminates the entire manual physician order fax operation and replaces it with an easy to use, automated fax system that is integrated within Thornberry’s NDoc® clinical management software. This secure internet-based fax system meets HIPAA guidelines for electronic exchange of patient health information (PHI), which includes faxing.

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CMS Reminder to Medicare Fee-For-Service Providers and Suppliers About NPI Deadline

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reminds all Medicare providers and suppliers that beginning May 23, 2008, they are required to use only a National Provider Identifier (NPI) to identify health care providers in all Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standard transactions used in the Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) program.

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BIDMC Joins Forces With Google Health

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) is expanding options for users of its secure PatientSite portal by joining forces with Google to offer a new way to safely exchange medical records and other health data through Google Health, which launched to the public recently at a media event at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Google Health will enable BIDMC to extend its support for personal health records. PatientSite users will be able to access, store and share health information with designated family members and health providers. They will also gain access to other Google features such as drug-to-drug interaction checking and other safety and medical references.

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Thirty Applicants for HHS EHR Demonstration Project

More than 30 communities have applied for a new demonstration project that will provide Medicare incentive payments to primary care physician practices that use certified EHR to improve the quality of patient care. The EHR demonstration project is expected to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of care for an estimated 3.6 million Americans.

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SHPS receives full URAC Re-accreditation for HIPAA Privacy

For the third consecutive time, SHPS was granted full URAC accreditation for HIPAA Privacy. URAC developed the HIPAA Privacy accreditation to recognize best practices in protecting health information privacy in accordance with the HIPAA Privacy Rule. In awarding SHPS full HIPAA Privacy accreditation, URAC reviewed multiple practices in SHPS’ compliance processes, including the company’s dedication to supporting confidentiality of participant information through policies, processes and a secure room for medical records.

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MEDNET USA to Help Shape Nationwide Health Information Network

MEDNET USA Inc, has partnered with the Community Health Information Collaborative (CHIC) to receive a federal grant to help develop and to test a nationwide health information network that will facilitate the secure sharing of EMRs to improve patient care. The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN), which is being developed by the H.H.S., will enable health information to follow the consumer, making it available for clinical decision-makers across the board, lowering healthcare costs, reducing medical errors and, ultimately improving patient care.

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Electronic Link Replaces Paper Records at Primary Health Medical Group

Primary Health Medical Group has announced the successful linking of their electronic health records (EHR) system with St. Luke’s Boise Laboratory. This technological partnership allows St. Luke’s to electronically transmit patient test results, such as blood tests, directly into the EHRs of Primary Health Medical Group patients. In addition to being a more efficient delivery system, the new connection will decrease the risk of errors and result in a higher level of service for patients.

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St. Jude Medical and Microsoft Collaborate to Easily Share Cardiac Device Data with Physicians

St. Jude Medical, Inc. recently announced a partnership with the Microsoft Corp. Health Solutions Group to research the integration of data from implantable devices with patient-controlled, personal health records. St. Jude Medical and Microsoft will work with physicians to determine the optimal level of integration (between the Merlin.net™ Patient Care Network and Microsoft® HealthVault) that will allow physicians to efficiently and confidentially share device information with their patients.

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Diversinet Demonstrates Breakthrough in Mobile EHRs

Launching its entry into the healthcare industry, Diversinet Corp. will help demonstrate a breakthrough in mobile EHRs at the 24th annual TEPR (Towards Electronic Patient Records) Conference being held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 19-21. AllOne Health GroupSM (AHG), in conjunction with Diversinet, will demonstrate how MobiSecure™ Wallet and Vault products enable the new AllOne MobileSM service to achieve privacy compliance while giving consumers instant access to their PHRs — anywhere, anytime — through their mobile phones without the need for an Internet connection.

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CMS to Test PHRs for Medicare Beneficiaries in South Carolina

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched a project that expands its efforts to encourage beneficiaries covered by traditional Medicare to take advantage of Internet-based resources to track their healthcare services and better communicate with their providers. The CMS pilot uses an on-line tool called a Personal Health Record (PHR) to give Medicare beneficiaries the ability to collect and then access information about their health or healthcare services, such as medical conditions, hospitalizations, doctor visits and medications and collect information about their health. CMS is ensuring that strict privacy and security safeguards are in place to protect all beneficiary data.

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Florida Cardiology to Integrate Practice Management and EHRs

To achieve its goal of enterprise-wide seamless integration to enhance patient care delivery and business office processes, Florida Cardiology has selected Sage Software’s Intergy EHR by Sage Electronic Health Records and Intergy by Sage Practice Management System. Florida Cardiology will deploy these Web-based integrated solutions at eight office locations equipped with full diagnostic facilities and a freestanding cardiac catheterization laboratory and two satellite offices in the greater Orlando area.

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Kaiser Permanente Completes Implementation of Outpatient EHR

Kaiser Permanente has announced that all of its 8.7 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia are now covered by an outpatient electronic health record (EHR). Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect™, is the world's largest privately funded EHR. All of Kaiser Permanente's 13,000 physicians now have electronic access to their patients' medical records in every one of their 421 medical offices and clinics.

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Aetna Helps Patients, Physicians Improve Health Outcomes With New Online Capabilities

Aetna is the first health plan to provide physicians evidence-based Care Considerations electronically. Care Considerations will now be sent through Aetna’s secure provider Web site via NaviNet, the multi-sponsor healthcare communication platform from NaviMedix. Care Considerations alert physicians to opportunities for improved care when care appears to have deviated from evidence-based medical best-practice standards.

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Elmhurst and Queens Hospital Centers and Axolotl Partner to Improve Patient Care

Elmhurst and Queens Hospital Centers, members of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, announced the selection of Axolotl Corp. to implement a regional health information exchange. With a commitment to delivering the highest quality of patient care, Elmhurst and Queens Hospital Centers will utilize Axolotl's advanced Elysium® technology to connect community healthcare participants and provide an electronic system for real-time delivery and sharing of clinical information among healthcare professionals.

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EDS Returns to Georgia with $391 Million Medicaid Win

EDS has been awarded a seven-year, $391 million contract by the state of Georgia to design, develop and implement a new-generation Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS). The new system will provide fiscal agent and enrollment broker services and establish electronic health records (EHRs) for Medicaid recipients. This Web-based system will also provide Georgia with data analysis about healthcare trends and outcomes of the state’s Medicaid population to assess needs and impacts of current programs.

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Global DataGuard Ensures HIPAA Compliance for Electronic Protected Health Information

Global DataGuard, a provider of enterprise unified threat management (Enterprise UTM) for small and medium business to large enterprise environments, is offering a full suite of enterprise-class products and services to assist healthcare organizations in successfully implementing security standards outlined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Utilizing a fully integrated portfolio of enterprise UTM products and managed and professional services, Global DataGuard’s HIPAA compliance solution provides for risk-based network assessment, auditing and planning for administrative, physical and technical safeguards, and includes a comprehensive behavioral-based network security architecture to help organizations efficiently and cost-effectively protect confidential healthcare data and electronic healthcare transactions.

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HIMSS Survey Points to “Access” as the Number One IT Security Concern

According to a survey conducted at the HIMSS 2008 Annual Conference and Exhibition, 64 percent of respondents cited “access” as their number one IT security concern, highlighting the importance of controlling user access to clinical systems and applications in healthcare environments. Additionally, 60 percent of attendees surveyed cite the threat of a HIPAA compliance audit as the strongest driver for security initiatives.

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Community Hospitals and Physicians Partner to Deliver the Best Care Possible

McKesson announced that it has signed a record number of community hospitals for its Paragon® community hospital information system (HIS) and Practice Partner® EHR and practice management solution. These top-rated systems connect physician practices to the hospital, allowing instant access to the most comprehensive patient information and improving the providers’ ability to deliver the best care possible. McKesson currently supports more than 100,000 of the nation’s providers with technology solutions that address the needs of every practice size and specialty.

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Privacy Experts’ Roundtable Report Will Highlight Privacy & Security Week

A new report on key issues related to the privacy and security of health information — and ways in which the industry may best address those issues — is now available from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). “Online, on Message, on Duty: Privacy Experts Share Their Challenges," based on an AHIMA roundtable, was released in conjunction with AHIMA's 5th annual Health Information Privacy and Security Week. It offers insights on issues including better educating health profesionals on how to prevent breaches of the privacy of health information. This year's theme, “Confidential Is Essential—Protect Health Information,” will spotlight the necessity to educate and inform healthcare professionals, their employers, the media and healthcare consumers on the importance of privacy protection, confidentiality and security of PHRs.

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Global DataGuard Delivers Complete Managed Security Platform

Global DataGuard is offering a Managed Security Platform (MSP) module, providing comprehensive managed security service provider (MSSP) benefits and dramatic cost savings through significantly reduced capital expenditures, training and staffing. Part of its technology-leading family of Enterprise Unified Threat Management security products and services, Global DataGuard's MSP module provides a cost-effective, unified monitoring system for management and administration of multiple customer security consoles with actionable, real-time remediation information, turnkey service creation and order entry and fulfillment.

A typical MSSP model requires placing collection devices on the customer network. These devices then send alerts to an offsite central data center for processing and monitoring. With increasing regulatory scrutiny and escalating attacks targeting personal data, many businesses are uncomfortable with any confidential customer data leaving their premises.

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Center for Democracy & Technology Launches Health Privacy Project

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) has launched a major project on health privacy and information technology. CDT is joining forces with the Health Privacy Project, which for 10 years has been an independent organization headed by privacy pioneer Janlori Goldman. The Health Privacy Project will become part of CDT and a new project director will lead the expanded effort.

“The combined strength of these organizations creates a program uniquely qualified to address the privacy challenges posed by the electronic exchange of personal health information,” said Leslie Harris, president and CEO of CDT. “The potential of health information exchange will be realized only if privacy is addressed,” Harris said.

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Two Million People Using Kaiser Permanente's Personal Health Record

Kaiser Permanente has announced that more than 2 million members are actively using the personal health record My health manager, a number that shows that consumers find Kaiser Permanente's personal health record an effective way to manage their care.

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HIXNY Awarded $4.6 Million NYS Technology Grant

New York Governor David A. Paterson recently announced that $105 million in grants have been awarded to 19 leading community-based health information technology (IT) projects. The grants are central to the state’s strategy to ensure that clinical information is in the hands of clinicians and their patients to help guide medical decisions and support the delivery of more coordinated, patient-centered care.

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Medical Records Institute Develops Criteria for Essential Medicolegal Requirements for EMRs

Standards and requirements for electronic medical records (EMR) systems remain in active development through the continuing efforts of multiple organizations including ASTM, HL7, and HITSP. Currently, though, the burden of proof (and risk) that a given EMR meets comprehensive requirements remains entirely on the purchaser. Furthermore, there are few resources for those who do take the time to execute a more robust due-diligence effort in comparing and contrasting higher level attributes as part of their selection process. The Medical Records Institute, in association with recognized experts in EMR functional assessments, have developed a new initiative to highlight key attributes of EMRs to support fundamental medical-legal requirements of medical records as business records.

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Golden Living Selects Aruba Secure Mobility Solutions for Corporate, Skilled Nursing and Assisted Living Facilities

Aruba Networks, Inc. will provide secure mobility solutions for HIPAA-compliant pharmaceutical management at Golden Living facilities across North America. Aruba Networks, Inc. is a global leader in wireless LANs and secure unified mobility solutions. Golden Living is a family of companies that provides care and services that directly or indirectly serve the elderly and disabled. This secure mobility solution will enable staff to manage medications for residents in a secure and efficient manner. The project encompasses 331 Golden Living Centers (skilled nursing facilities) and 19 Golden Living Communities (assisted living facilities) in 22 states. Each location will be served by approximately 10 Aruba access points, and more than 2,000 access points have already been deployed.

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Analysis Group Selects Ethidium's E-Health Platform for Global Medical Record Review

Ethidium Health Systems, a leading developer of clinical information management software and services, has announced that Analysis Group has licensed the company's e-health platform for use in capturing and managing clinical data as part of a multi-year, multi-national medical record review study sponsored by one of the world's top five global pharmaceutical companies.

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McLeod Health Selects Emergisoft for Emergency Department Information System Project

McLeod Health, one of South Carolina’s leading healthcare providers, has selected the EmergisoftED™ Emergency Department Information Systems (EDIS) for its facilities. The implementation of EmergisoftED at McLeod Health will empower the emergency department to streamline processes, ensure compliance with privacy regulations, enhance patient care, increase patient safety and allow the healthcare providers to focus on patient flow.

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Bright Health Physicians of PIH Selects HealthTrio’s Enterprise Application Solution

HealthTrio LLC, a leading provider of e-health and core business solutions for the managed care industry, has announced that Bright Health Physicians of PIH has selected HealthTrio xpress ™ and HealthTrio connect ™ as their Systems of Choice based on HealthTrio’s ability to deliver advanced technology, feature-rich functionality and client support. Through the unification of Presbyterian Health Physicians (PHP) and Bright Medical Associates (BMA) Bright Health Physicians of PIH will utilize HealthTrio’s enterprise application solution to administer world-class healthcare service to Whittier and the surrounding communities while developing a full continuum of comprehensive care management services.

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Crystal Run Healthcare Deploys Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway Appliance

Proofpoint, Inc., the leading provider of unified e-mail security and data loss prevention solutions, recently announced that Crystal Run Healthcare has successfully deployed the Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway™ appliance to defend against inbound spam and virus threats, as well as to prevent leaks of confidential information in outbound e-mail messages, including social security numbers, credit card numbers and patient data.

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Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center Selects Zix Corporation for E-mail Encryption Service

Zix Corporation (ZixCorp®), the leader in e-mail encryption and e-prescribing services, has announced that Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center in Nebraska has signed a three-year contract for ZixCorp's e-mail encryption service. As the leading e-mail encryption provider with over 10 million protected email recipients, ZixCorp's vast ZixDirectory™ allows seamless encrypted e-mail delivery to healthcare organizations, insurers, financial institutions and regulators, including the federal banking regulatory agencies.

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SquareLoop Introduces HIPAA-Compliant Secure Text Messaging Solution

SquareLoop Inc., a provider of wireless location-based services (LBS), has introduced a text messaging system to enable secure transmission of data over public wireless networks. The text messaging system, which is a new feature on SquareLoop's Mobile Alert Network, complies with Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act (HIPAA) regulations governing encryption of patients' electronic records and provides an application for secure mobile-originated text messages, giving the healthcare industry a unique data communications solution for its mobile workforce.

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Perimeter eSecurity Launches On Demand, Layered IT Security Solution for Healthcare Organizations

Perimeter eSecurity, the only provider of Complete Security On Demand, has launched their electronic Protected Health Information offering, ePHISecurity. ePHISecurity is the first and only on demand layered IT security solution for healthcare organizations. Entities covered under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 now have access to a complete, end-to-end security infrastructure, with over 50 pre-integrated security services, that traditionally only large healthcare organizations could implement and afford.

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Trust Digital Releases HIPAA Security Compliance and Mobility White Paper

Trust Digital, the leading smartphone security management provider, recently announced the availability of its HIPAA Security Compliance and Mobility white paper. This white paper lays the groundwork for implementing mobility best practices geared specifically toward healthcare providers so they are able to eliminate theft, prevent unauthorized access to records and reduce the threats associated with malicious attacks.

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Center for Democracy & Technology Launches Health Privacy Project

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) has launched a major project on health privacy and information technology. The CDT is joining forces with the Health Privacy Project to take on key policy questions, including: the proper role of notice and consent, the right of patients to access their own health records in electronic formats, identification and authentication, secondary uses, and enforcement mechanisms. It will address both the traditional exchange of records among providers and payers, as well as new consumer access services and Personal Health Records.

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Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators May Expose Patients to Security and Privacy Risks

Some medical devices such as implantable cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers are now equipped with wireless technology, allowing for remote device checks and freeing patients from repeated doctor visits. But this convenience may come with unanticipated risks. A team of researchers from three leading universities has demonstrated that patients' private medical information could be extracted and their devices reprogrammed without the patients' authorization or knowledge.

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National Patient Safety Foundation Proposes Provider-Patient Compact

Recognizing the vital role that effective partnering plays in improving patient safety and healthcare quality, the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) has proposed a Universal Patient Compact to complement the Consumer Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. The Universal Patient Compact will build on the Consumer Bill of Rights to establish a mutual covenant between healthcare providers and their patients.

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New York Unveils State-of-the-Art Electronic Health Record Technology

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden recently unveiled the city's next-generation electronic health records (EHRs), already in use at more than 200 primary care providers across the city that care for more than 200,000 New Yorkers. Amidst a growing national debate about how to fix the healthcare system, the city is on track to meet its goal of equipping more than 1,000 local healthcare providers — many of them practicing in the city's poorest and sickest neighborhoods — with secure EHR systems by the end of the year, benefiting more than a million patients.

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ComputerProx Announces First Automated Workstation Locking Solution Tied to the Opening of a Door

ComputerProx has announced the newest addition to its walk-away security line of products — the DocLok. The DocLok is the first integrated solution that automates the locking of a workstation with the physical opening of a door. The DocLok was designed for the hospital or healthcare environment where physicians or staff frequently enter and leave examination rooms often leaving the workstation with patient information accessible. The DocLok solves this problem by locking the workstation as soon as the examination room door is opened, thus eliminating the possibility of confidential patient information being exposed.

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iMedicor Announces Agreement with Microsoft HealthVault

Vemics, Inc. (VMCI-PK), a leading provider of hosted, real-time learning and productivity portals, has formalized its relationship with Microsoft Corp. through the Microsoft HealthVault Solution Provider agreement. Launched in October, 2007, HealthVault is the recently announced software and services platform aimed at helping people manage and collect their personal health information. Through this agreement, Vemics' iMedicor HIPAA compliant EHRT (Electronic Health Record Transport) portal will give HealthVault subscribers a user-friendly conduit for patient-physician communication as well as expedited access to their medical records and images.

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States Advancing Common Approaches to Protecting Electronic Health Information

Most states have made substantial progress in defining their privacy and security approaches for electronic health information exchange, according to a report released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The thirty three states and Puerto Rico make up the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC), which has gained a greater understanding of and ability to address the variation in business practices, policies, and state laws that affect the electronic exchange of health information over the past 18 months.

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Cleveland Clinic Collaborates with Google to Enhance Patients’ Healthcare Experience

Cleveland Clinic is collaborating with Google to pilot features and services of a new health offering. The Google offering, not yet publicly available, will assist providers to create a new kind of healthcare experience that puts patients in charge of their own health information. The pilot, an invitation-only opportunity offered to a group of Cleveland Clinic personal health record users, plans to enroll between 1,500 and 10,000 patients.

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Palms are the Key to Unlocking Patient Records at HIMSS 2008

With the passage of the HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), hospitals and other medical organizations are required to use two or more forms of authentication to access electronic medical records of patients. Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc., a leading supplier of innovative biometric security solutions, recently demonstrated the new PalmSecure™ PC Log-In Kit at the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference in Orlando, FL. The PalmSecure PC Log-In Kit provides a fast and secure way to access highly sensitive patient information for healthcare professionals.

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Riverwood ER to Go Live with Electronic Charting

Electronic charting is going live for Riverwood Healthcare Center’s emergency department staff. ER patients will see doctors and nurses recording their vital signs and other medical data electronically instead of manually on a paper chart.

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Microsoft Announces the Amalga Family of Health Enterprise Systems

Microsoft Corp. has announced the Microsoft Amalga Family of Health Enterprise Systems. The Amalga product lineup is a portfolio of enterprise-class health information system solutions spanning clinical, operational and financial functions.

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Courion Helps Leading US Healthcare Organizations Automate Identity Management and Access Compliance

Courion® Corporation, the provisioning experts for results-driven operations, has announced the latest in an extensive list of US healthcare organizations that have selected the Courion Enterprise Provisioning Suite™ solution to automate critical identity management and access compliance processes.

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Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) Selects VisionTree Optimal Care™ to Collect Quality of Life Patient Outcomes Data

VisionTree®, the leader in Web-based patient-centered health record management and provider communication systems, has announced that the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) through the American College of Radiology selected its VisionTree Optimal Care™ (VTOC) platform for collecting quality of life patient outcomes data for a pilot study conducted by the RTOG. RTOG will use the system at a select number of member institutions for a prostate cancer study in order to improve the compliance of the data collection, validation and reporting processes.

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SourceMedical Adopts New Technology to Improve Patient Admission Process via the Internet

SourceMedical, the leading provider of outpatient information solutions collectively serving 6,000 ambulatory surgery centers, surgical hospitals and rehabilitation clinics nationwide, announced recently a partnership with Medical Web Technologies (MWT) to offer One Medical Passport™ to its Vision, AdvantX and SurgiSource customers. The SourcePlus Medical Passport will allow facilities using SourceMedical applications the ability to have their patients complete their own registration and preoperative medical history securely via the Internet from the privacy of their own homes.

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New Patient Safety Proposed Regulation Aims to Improve Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety

A proposed regulation to improve the quality and safety of healthcare for all Americans by fostering the establishment of Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) has been announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). PSOs are private entities recognized by the secretary to collect and analyze patient safety events reported by healthcare providers. They are new and separate from all currently existing entities that are addressing healthcare quality.

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The Mount Sinai Medical Center Selects Symantec for Endpoint Data Loss Prevention

Symantec Corp. has announced that The Mount Sinai Medical Center has selected Vontu Data Loss Prevention 8 from Symantec to protect electronic personal healthcare information (e-PHI) and other confidential data, as well as enable compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Mount Sinai has licensed Vontu Endpoint Discover and Prevent to discover confidential data on desktops and laptops as well as prevent such data from being downloaded to endpoint systems or copied to USB drives or other removal devices.

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California Department of Health Care Services Wins Network World's All-Star Award

GuardianEdge, the leading provider of endpoint data protection, announced that the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) garnered an honorable mention in Network World’s Enterprise All-Star Award competition based upon its proactive approach to data leakage protection. Network World was impressed with the approach DHCS took in its encryption of data on laptop and desktop personal computers, noting that DHCS’s use of GuardianEdge technology and its approach were examples of best practices for other entities handling sensitive information.

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VMware Desktop Virtualization Helps Healthcare Providers Improve Patient Care

U.S. healthcare providers of all sizes are turning to VMware virtual desktop solutions to relieve many of the “pain points” of desktop computing, including high management costs and low data security. National providers such as Kindred Healthcare and major regional providers including Huntsville Hospital and Metropolitan Health are now using VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to give care providers the mobility and reliability they need to access patient information at the point of care, and enable data center staff to manage IT more efficiently with the strict security controls required by government regulations and patient privacy needs.

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Health and Technology Leaders Tackle Challenge of Managing Consumers' Identities in Web-Based Personal Health Tools

The critical challenge of validating each person's identity online can be addressed through a mix of established and emerging techniques to help stimulate the growth of new electronic health services and personal health records, according to a new report released by Connecting for Health, a public-private collaborative group operated by the Markle Foundation. To make rapid progress toward enabling consumers to access their personal health information accurately and securely, the Connecting for Health Work Group on Consumer Authentication Policies for Networked Health Information recommends widespread adoption of several common practices for managing the identities of online consumers.

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Mayo Clinic, Microsoft Announce Strategic Agreement To Develop Consumer Health Management Tools

Mayo Clinic Health Solutions and Microsoft Corporation's Health Solutions Group will collaboratively develop tools that will empower people to manage their health and become engaged partners with their providers in a new model of healthcare. As leaders in their respective industries, both organizations recognize the potential for technology solutions to help bridge the gaps in the healthcare system, to facilitate closer patient-to-physician connections and to allow patients and consumers to better manage their health and wellness information.

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Imprivata Provides Physicians with Secure Application Access

Imprivata®, Inc., the converged identity and access management appliance company, announced that its OneSign™ Single Sign-On (SSO) solution has been selected by United Regional Health Care, a Wichita Falls, TX-based healthcare organization that offers state-of-the-art technologies and facilities, a broad spectrum of healthcare services and a level of quality care unmatched in the region. Implemented in conjunction with CDW Healthcare, a leading provider of technology products and services to healthcare organizations, Imprivata’s flexible, appliance-based single sign-on solution helps United Regional solve the password management frustrations its staff had been experiencing as new applications and login policies were added to their everyday routines.

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Maine To Launch Statewide Health Information Exchange

Maine residents will benefit from safer, better coordinated and more efficient healthcare thanks to a new statewide medical information-sharing network that will be launched this year. Physicians, hospital leaders and public health officials gathered in Augusta recently to announce that more than $4 million has now been raised to begin construction of the nonprofit HealthInfoNet network, placing Maine among the first states in the nation to build and operate a statewide electronic health information network.

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Identity Engines Has the Cure for the Healthcare Industry’s Network Security Ailment

Identity Engines, Inc., a leading provider of identity-centric network access management solutions, disclosed the recent surge in healthcare organizations deploying the company’s 802.1X identity-based network access solutions. The organization signed eight new healthcare customers in the second half of 2007, reflecting the increasing need for both healthcare providers and payers to control network access for data protection and regulatory compliance, enforce network resource allocation, and control patient and visitor wireless Internet access without impacting operations.

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LOGICARE Selects M2SYS Biometric Fingerprint Software to Ensure Patient Privacy and Protect Confidential Information

M2SYS Technology, an award-winning biometric fingerprint technology firm, announced that LOGICARE Corporation has enhanced its OnRecord™ healthcare solution for emergency departments and patient educators by integrating M2SYS’ Bio-Plugin™ fingerprint software for HIPAA Compliance, Patient Security, and Operational Efficiencies. The biometric module is now available to LOGICARE’s growing customer base for OnRecord™ solutions throughout the United States.

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Kansas Reaches 1 Million Patients in Immunization Registry

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has announced that the Kansas Immunization Registry Project, known as KSWebIZ, recently registered its one-millionth patient since its inception in August 2005. KSWebIZ reached 1 million patients in just over two years and has 148 immunization providers in the state using the system.

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Aetna Helps Individual Members Organize Medical Information and Improve Health with Unique, Interactive Personal Health Record

Aetna has made its CareEngine-powered Personal Health Record available to all Aetna Individual Advantage members in the 24 states (and Washington, D.C.) where Aetna Advantage Plans are currently sold. Aetna’s Personal Health Record is the first to use the CareEngine System, which is a proprietary technology platform developed by ActiveHealth Management, a branded, stand-alone business of Aetna. Besides providing a secure online location for health information and improving dialogue between members and their physicians, Aetna’s Personal Health Record also encourages members to become more involved in their own healthcare.

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Healthcare Organizations Improve Patient Accounting, Safeguard Clinical Data

DB Technology, a leading provider of automated information management and reporting solutions, has announced that several existing and new healthcare customers have signed contracts for the deployment of the company’s software in the fourth quarter of 2007. The healthcare facilities have adopted DB Technology’s automated information management and report distribution solutions to help automate business processes, improve financial and operational reporting and maximize corporate efficiency.

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OhioHealth Increases Security at State's First Paperless Hospital by Using Imprivata for Identity Access and Authentication

OhioHealth’s Dublin Methodist Hospital has implemented Imprivata Inc.’s OneSign Single Sign-On (SSO) to provide secure on-line access to digital information. As an added security measure for patient protection, Dublin Methodist uses Imprivata’s ProveID to meet state compliance requirements.

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Encentuate Automates Workflow, Strengthens Security for Marion General Hospital

Marion General Hospital, in Marion, Ind., has deployed Encentuate to improve user productivity and enhance security through multi-factor strong authentication, session management, single sign-on and graceful logoff. At Marion General, Encentuate automates workflow in the hospital's shared workstation environment through fast user switching, which allows staff to easily login and logout of the hospital's network and applications with a fingerprint or ID badge.

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Wayport Signs with Berkshire Health Systems for Wi-Fi

Berkshire Health Systems of Pittsfield, Mass., signed an agreement with Wayport, Inc., a provider of public and private network support and integration for healthcare facilities for wireless Internet service in its two hospitals: Berkshire Medical Center and Fairview Hospital. Access to the service will be available throughout each hospital, and is targeted toward enhancing the patient and visitor experience.

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AG Mednet To Provide Image Network for Southwest Oncology Group

Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), one of the largest federally funded cancer clinical trials cooperative groups in the United States, has selected AG Mednet to provide a secure, 21 CFR Part 11- and HIPAA-compliant image network. With the AG Mednet network, SWOG will be able to enhance quality and increase the speed and flexibility of image transfer among its more than 550 investigating centers, including 17 of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Centers, all while reducing associated costs.

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Ontario Ministry of Health Implements Tumbleweed To Secure Transfer of Patient Data

The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care has selected Tumbleweed Communications Corporation’s SecureTransport™ to ensure the secure transfer of electronic medical records and to eliminate the risk of accidental loss of personal health data.

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Delano Regional Medical Center Goes Live with Sentillion for Single Sign-On and Context Management

Delano (Calif.) Regional Medical Center (DRMC) has gone live with Sentillion's Vergence Clinical Workstation solution, delivering both single sign-on and context management capabilities to over 300 clinical users. Delano’s implementation of Sentillion unifies a wide variety of healthcare clinical and business applications including, MEDITECH Laboratory, Dictaphone PowerScribe®, GE Centricity™, PACS as well as Cerner® applications which are remotely hosted in Texas.

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Lincoln County Medical Center Secures Patient Data and Stops Spam and Viruses with the Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway Appliance

Lincoln County Medical Center has deployed Proofpoint Inc.'s Messaging Security Gateway appliance to ensure that sensitive and confidential information is not shared via email and that the organization is compliant with HIPAA and other data security regulations. Lincoln County Medical Center is also using Proofpoint to protect its employees from incoming spam and viruses.

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Advanced Imaging Capabilities, Enhance Range Of Patient Services and Complete a PACs Migration Project

Marlborough Hospital has benefited since joining the AG Mednet network 18 months ago. Marlborough Hospital sought to access a broader range of imaging capabilities, with a goal to increase the quality and scope of services offered to patients, while maintaining the highest levels of security and patient confidentiality. Marlborough Hospital was also looking for an effective and efficient way to migrate thousands of studies from their legacy PACS system to their new state of the art environment, a problem which is generally difficult to solve due to PACS storage incompatibilities across vendors.

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GEHA Selects Nevis Networks for Identity-Based Network Access Control

The Government Employees Health Association (GEHA) has deployed Nevis Networks' LANenforcer 2024 appliances to meet federally mandated HIPAA compliance requirements and enforce pre- and post-connect access controls to fully secure users on its internal LAN. GEHA’s large-scale deployment of LANenforcers extends to nearly 1,600 access switch ports and delivers secure access control for nearly 800 users.

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Healthcare Industry and Business Leaders To Develop a Common Health Information Security Framework

In an effort to improve the security of sensitive health information, major organizations from across the healthcare and employer spectrum have united to participate in the development of the first ever common security framework for the protection of health information.

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NCHICA and WEDI Announce Release of Regulatory Timeline

The North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, Inc. (NCHICA) and the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) Timeline Initiative have released its first estimated timeline database addressing proposed healthcare standards, regulations and other initiatives announced by federal agencies and national standards organizations.

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Health Level Seven, AHIP and BCBSA Sign MOU To Collaborate On Portability Standards For Personal Health Records

Health Level Seven, Inc. (HL7), America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to create a collaborative process for the maintenance of portability standards for personal health records (PHR).

This MOU expands the number of stakeholders involved in the standards development process to help facilitate data portability between health insurance plans to give plan members the ability to move their personal health data when their health coverage changes.

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Data Breach Costs Continue to Rise

As companies grapple with the challenge of protecting their customers' private data, new research shows that the cost of failing to do so is on the rise.

Data breach incidents cost companies $197 per compromised customer record in 2007, compared to $182 in 2006. Lost business opportunity, including losses associated with customer churn and acquisition, represented the most significant component of the cost increase, rising from $98 in 2006 to $128 in 2007 — a 30 percent increase, according to "The 2007 Annual Study: Cost of a Data Breach" by Ponemon Institute.

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HealthAlliance Hospital Provides Anytime, Anywhere Access to Medical Images

HealthAlliance Hospital has implemented an IBM Grid Medical Archive Solution (GMAS) to make patient records available to clinicians anytime, anywhere. HealthAlliance Hospital, a member of UMass Memorial Health Care, serves the communities of north-central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire with acute care facilities, a cancer center, outpatient physical therapy facilities and a remote home health agency. As an investment in continued high-quality patient care, the hospital has implemented a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) from Siemens Medical Solutions so that it can move toward digital health records while eliminating traditional paper and film.

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60% of IT Security Teams Spend At Least One Quarter of Resources on Compliance

In a recent survey of 103 IT security professionals, 60% percent stated that at least 25% of their team’s time is spent on compliance efforts. nCircle, the leading provider of agentless security risk and compliance management solutions, conducted the survey from August 16 through October 31, 2007.

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Healthcare Provider Selects Silanis E-Signatures to Help Improve Patient Care

National Counseling Group, Inc. (NCG) is among the thousands of organizations now using ApproveIt® Desktop electronic signature solution, by leading e-signature provider Silanis Technology, to streamline internal approvals in compliance with ESIGN, UETA and industry-specific regulations.

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Uniontown Hospital Completes Move to Lawson Hosted Services

Uniontown Hospital completed its move to Lawson Software's Total Care Platinum, a fully-hosted service for Lawson applications. Uniontown Hospital opted for the hosted service to help simplify its enterprise application ownership experience by significantly reducing demands on its internal IT resources.

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University of Miami Medical Group Transitions Toward Electronic Health Record System by Leveraging EMC® Documentum® ApplicationXtender® Platform

The University of Miami Clinical Enterprise Technologies (UMCET) is using EMC Corporation's Documentum® ApplicationXtender® software suite to transition the University of Miami Medical Group to an electronic medical record system. Using EMC technology, services and support, UMCET created a hybrid medical record system to manage both paper and electronic documents and patient records. Physicians and hospital staff benefit from a unified platform that aggregates, manages and archives all paper and electronic patient information, and presents it via an intuitive user interface customized to meet their needs.

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Lutheran Medical Center Jump Starts Identity and Access Management with Encentuate

Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York has deployed Encentuate's end-point identity and access management (IAM) suite to automate access and strengthen security across 20 core applications. Lutheran selected Encentuate for fast deployment and easy adoption for its more than 4000 end-users. Encentuate's software-based solution integrates seamlessly into Lutheran's physical and logical environment, without the need for changes to Lutheran's VMware virtualized infrastructure.

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Six Hospitals Sign-up for Sentillion's Single Sign-On Products

Berkshire Health Services, Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Inc., Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Hendrick Health System, Northern Hospital of Surry County, Norton Healthcare, Scripps Healthcare, Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust and Rush Copley Medical Center have signed on to use Sentillion's single sign-on, user provisioning, clinical workstations and virtualized remote access solutions.

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Shriners Hospitals for Children System to Implement McKesson PACS at 22 Hospitals Across North America

Shriners Hospitals for Children will implement advanced healthcare information technology (IT) from McKesson across its 22-hospital system. The contract includes implementation of McKesson’s top-rated picture archiving and communication system (PACS) as well as technology services that will create a secondary data center for improved disaster recovery. With the Horizon Medical Imaging™ system, radiologists, surgeons and other caregivers at Shriners Hospitals and its affiliates will be able to electronically capture, retrieve, view and store medical images, from ultrasound to multi-slice CT, at multiple locations. The goal is better access to information, reduced turnaround times and, most importantly, improved patient safety.

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Emergis' Oacis EMR To Be Implemented at Medical University of South Carolina

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) signed an agreement with Emergis Inc. for the implementation of the Java™ web-based version of Oacis, Emergis’ electronic medical record (EMR) system, throughout MUSC's clinical enterprise including its new state-of-the-art health care facility, Ashley River Tower. The new facility, along with the upgraded version of Oacis EMR, is expected to be in operation early next year. Oacis is the first Java™-based (fully web enabled) enterprise EMR solution available, resulting in enhanced flexibility as well as low cost and rapid deployment.

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University Hospital Birmingham Maximizes Storage Optimization and Compliance Benefits

The University Hospital Birmingham (UHB) has implemented Autonomy ZANTAZ’ Enterprise Archiving Solution (EAS) to efficiently manage its rapidly growing email volumes to keep them in line with regulatory requirements. With EAS, UHB has shortened its email retrieval process from weeks to minutes. Autonomy ZANTAZ’ partner, Essential Computing, was the systems integrator for the project.

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Encentuate Powers Identity and Access Management for Englewood Hospital

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey has deployed the Encentuate IAM Suite to strengthen access security across the organization. With Encentuate, Englewood automates access to web, desktop and legacy applications, using a combination of single sign-on and employee RFID badges for strong authentication. Encentuate goes beyond traditional identity and access management to provide Englewood with session management and fast user switching, as well as secure remote access. Opened in 1890, Englewood is in its second century of service, with 520 beds and more than 2,500 employees.

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Palmer College of Chiropractic Selects Colubris Networks to Provide Wireless Infrastructure

Palmer College of Chiropractic has selected Colubris Networks to provide a wireless infrastructure for its three campuses across the U.S. With Colubris, Palmer College will be able to provide full wireless coverage for its California and Florida campuses, while plans are underway to provide wireless coverage for most of the Iowa campus. In addition to this highly reliable wireless network, Colubris provides Palmer with critical security features for access control and healthcare industry compliance requirements.

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HITSP Defines Overarching Set of Healthcare Security and Privacy Standards

The Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) has identified a set of standards and specifications that will help to keep patient medical information secure in an electronic environment. The standards will also help to assure that this information will only be used by authorized personnel for official purposes.

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CGI Leads IT Integration of HHS Nationwide Health Information Network for Carespark Team

CGI Group, Inc., announced that, as a part of the CareSpark team, it has been selected as the lead systems integrator to link CareSpark’s regional health information network into the Health and Human Services (HHS) Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN).

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Colorado Department of Human Services Chooses AirMagnet to Ensure its Wireless Network is Secure and HIPAA Compliant

The Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) has selected AirMagnet Enterprise to secure its wireless LAN infrastructure. CDHS, the second largest agency in the Colorado state government, will use AirMagnet Enterprise to ensure the integrity of the wireless network and the confidentiality of personal information for thousands of Colorado residents.

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Heartland Health Signs with Palisade Systems’ PacketSure for Data Loss Prevention, Protocol Management

Heartland Health, an integrated health delivery system including a medical center, physician practices, foundation and a health plan, has deployed Palisade Systems' PacketSure 6.0, to protect private health information (PHI) from being transmitted out of their network. Palisade Systems’ DLP and compliance solution, PacketSure, is a multi-functional security appliance that monitors and enforces corporate remediation policies for sensitive, inappropriate, confidential or compliance information from leaving a network.

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Good Health Network Provides Instant and Secure Web Access to Personal Health Records using Authentify Out-of-Band Voice Identification System

Good Health Network (GHN), a provider of premium electronic personal health records for municipalities and businesses, has selected Authentify Inc. to prevent unauthorized access to Personal Health Records made available online. The Authentify service will provide security and privacy protection for Electronic Personal Health Records (EPHR) using a real-time authentication method that combines an automated phone call with biometric voice print matching. Authentify enables GHN to offer access to EPHRs without the typical lag time encountered when sending credentials to users via traditional channels like postal mail.

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Partners Healthcare Launches Courion PasswordCourier

Partners Healthcare has successfully completed the implementation of Courion Corporation's PasswordCourier® password provisioning solution, providing a foundation for the healthcare provider's best practices identity management security infrastructure. Since implementing PasswordCourier, more than 80 percent of Partners Healthcare employees have reset and strengthened passwords. The company expects 100 percent of its employee population will successfully reset and strengthen passwords by the end of the year.

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Axeda Selected for Remote Monitoring and Service of Automation Technologies

McKesson Automation, a division of McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK), has selected the Axeda Corporation's ServiceLink solution for remote service of its automation technologies for hospitals, which ensure safety and accuracy throughout the medication use process.

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Vangent, Inc. Awarded Contract To Support Military Health System’s Executive Information and Decision Support Program

Vangent, Inc., a leading global provider of information management and business process outsourcing solutions, today announced it has been awarded the Military Health System Executive Information and Decision Support (EIDS) Infrastructure Operations, Security and Maintenance Support contract, valued at $18.2 million over 5 years. Vangent will serve as the prime contractor, with subcontractors CACI International, Inc. and Planned Systems International. The work will be performed at the four geographically dispersed EIDS sites and at Vangent team sites in Falls Church and Chantilly, VA.

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Western New York Healthelink RHIP Partners With Axolotl for Health Information Exchange Solution

HealtheLink, the Western New York Clinical Information Exchange, has selected Axolotl Corp. to deploy and maintain a secure and reliable infrastructure for the timely and accurate electronic exchange of clinical information among healthcare providers, insurers and other medical professionals. HealtheLink will be utilizing Axolotl's Elysium hybrid federated solution to connect community healthcare participants and provide an electronic system for real-time sharing of clinical information among healthcare professionals.

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Texas Children’s Hospital Selects Hyland Software’s OnBase to Complete Electronic Medical Records Initiative

Texas Children’s Hospital has chosen Hyland Software, developer of the OnBase enterprise content management (ECM) software suite, to provide a document management solution.

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HHS Awards Contracts for Trial Implementations of the Nationwide Health Information Network

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt has awarded contracts totaling $22.5 million to nine health information exchanges (HIEs) to begin trial implementations of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN).

These contracts will create a secure foundation for basic health information exchange between select HIEs upon which more complex functions will be possible over time. This work will advance the nation toward the President’s goal of most Americans having access to secure electronic health records by 2014, by creating a secure foundation for health information exchange that can follow Americans throughout their lives.

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University of Tennessee Medical Center Deploys Compliance Commander™ for Protecting Patient Data

Intrusion Inc. announced today the successful deployment of at The University of Tennessee Medical Center has successfully deployed Intrusion Inc.'s Compliance Commander™ to protect against patient data leaks onto public networks. The high costs associated with patient data breaches, and the potential loss of patient confidence, are key drivers for adoption of this new technology.

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Piedmont Hospital Signs Contract With Dialog Medical for Informed Consent Application

Piedmont Hospital, a 458-bed acute tertiary care facility serving the Atlanta area, signed a contract for Dialog Medical's iMedConsent application. Dialog Medical is a provider of informed consent and patient education systems for hospitals and physician practices.

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Fragmented Governance, Risk and Compliance Efforts Can Thwart Companies From Achieving Business Goals

Most companies acknowledge the high cost and risks of fragmented governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) efforts, yet few have taken action, according to the 2007 Open Compliance and Ethics Group (OCEG) GRC Strategy Survey.

“The survey revealed a higher degree of dissatisfaction and pain associated with current GRC approaches than we expected to find,” said Lee Dittmar, a Principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, a primary sponsor of the survey. “However, while respondents recognized the need to reduce unnecessary complexity and better integrate their risk and compliance needs with mainstream business processes, a relatively few have taken action to address the problem.”

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Palomar Pomerado Health Protects Patient Data with Vontu

Palomar Pomerado Health, North San Diego County's largest healthcare provider, has selected Vontu Inc.'s Data Loss Prevention to protect its confidential patient and employee information. With Vontu, the company can automate data loss prevention policies and demonstrate compliance with data privacy regulations including the Payment Card Industry's Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

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Sandia National Laboratories Selects Allscripts Electronic Health Record and Practice Management for Employee Health Center

Sandia National Laboratories has selected the company's integrated Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management (PM) solution to automate and connect clinical and administrative processes for Sandia’s on-site medical clinics.

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IT Security Pros Say Their Security Policies Do Not Have Clear Consequences

In a recent survey of 113 IT security professionals, 51 percent stated that their organization's security policies do not have clear consequences for security violations, highlighting the challenges in creating and implementing a coherent security policy. nCircle, the leading provider of agentless security risk and compliance management solutions, conducted the survey from May 7 to August 16, 2007.

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Healthcare Industry Must Do More To Protect EHR Systems

Commercial electronic health record (EHR) systems are vulnerable to exploitation given existing industry development and disclosure practices, according to a new report released by the eHealth Vulnerability Reporting Program (eHVRP.org), based on a fifteen-month study assessing the security risks associated with EHR systems. The study evaluated current industry information security practices, assessed level of risk related to EHR systems, benchmarked healthcare information security practices against other industries, and produced a set of recommendations relating to activities beneficial to protecting information systems in the healthcare industry.

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Concentra Prescribes Alert Logic's On-Demand Service for Internal IT Network Security

Concentra, Inc., a health care company with 320 medical centers in 40 states and hundreds of clinics at major employer sites, has selected Alert Logic Threat Manager™ to protect Concentra’s network from the latest threats that are capable of evading perimeter and endpoint defenses.

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Managers Believe in Motivational Benefits of Remote Working but Worry About Data Security

Data from over 1,000 managers endorses working remotely from home, though wired beaches are out; security and disaster planning are major unsolved issues. Business leaders and managers are becoming more comfortable with their staff working remotely, although concerns remain about the impact of the remote work force on computer security among other issues, according to a survey of more than 1,100 managers by secure infrastructure firm SonicWALL.

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GuardianEdge Data Protection Platform Selected by the General Services Administration Federal SmartBUY Initiative

The General Services Administration SmartBUY initiative has selected GuardianEdge's Data Protection Platform as a preferred encryption software solution by the Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) Data At Rest Tiger Team (DARTT). After a rigorous assessment, GuardianEdge endpoint encryption has been certified for its ability to protect all Data at Rest (DAR) storage devices including hard drives, tablet PCs, smart phones, PDAs and removable storage devices.

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The Reading Hospital Selects Encentuate for Identity and Access Management

The Reading Hospital, in Reading, Pa., has selected Encentuate's Single Sign-On for the hospital's more than 1,000 caregivers. The Encentuate IAM Suite simplifies and secures access to applications and network resources, allowing caregivers to be more productive and to focus less on security and more on quality patient care. With Encentuate, Reading's IT staff maintains centralized control over user roles and rights, which ensures that private patient information is only accessed by authorized persons.

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How Healthcare Providers Are Leveraging Privacy and Security Compliance

Working toward compliance with HIPAA’s security rule and other regulations has been a grueling and resource-intensive effort­an achievement based, in some cases, on an unsustainable level of expenditure.

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Digital Signatures Enhance Alaska Sleep Clinic Drive towards Paperless Systems and HIPAA Compliance

ARX, Inc. (Algorithmic Research), a global provider of standards-based digital signatures (electronic signatures) and information assurance solutions, has implemented a CoSign® digital-signature solution at sleep disorder diagnosis provider, Alaska Sleep Clinic, Inc. (ASC). CoSign is ARX's non-forgeable, simple-to-use, standards-based digital-signature solution that allows users to digitally sign documents, records, files, forms, and other electronic transactions.

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Wyckoff Heights Medical Center Chooses Accellion to Safeguard Patient Data

Wyckoff Heights Medical Center has selected Accellion, Inc. to provide a secure means for sharing confidential patient data outside of its network. The Accellion solution has enabled Wyckoff to provide a consistent process for sharing billing information with outside vendors and government agencies without compromising patient confidentiality.

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Emdeon Business Services Renews EDI Services Agreement With Aetna

Aetna has renewed its EDI service agreement with Emdeon Business Services. Emdeon Business Services, a privately-held company, provides revenue cycle management and clinical communication solutions that enables payers, providers and patients to improve healthcare business processes. Under the agreement, which runs through September 2010, Emdeon Business Services will continue to provide the core set of HIPAA transactions and, in addition, the companies will collaborate to accelerate the adoption of Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) and the Electronic Coordination of Benefit (eCOB) claims.

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MedPartners to Implement the ikaEnterprise System as Its Total Technology Outsourcing Solution

MedPartners, a joint venture between Lutheran Health Network and Three Rivers Medical Associates Independent Physician Association has contracted with ikaSystems to implement its ikaEnterprise system as a technology outsourcing solution. The MedPartners organization provides employers with a variety of cost-effective options from which to choose a group health plan for their employees. The LutheranPreferred PPO is the flagship product of the MedPartners network, with over 14,000 physicians and 63 hospitals in over 28 counties in Indiana.

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SonicWALL Solution Delivers Cure for Saint Francis Medical Center's Email Ailments

For Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo., securing email from harmful viruses, spam and malware is as much about protecting its nearly 1,000 email users as it is about protecting the organization and its patients. To combat the burgeoning spam epidemic and the looming threats of electronic viruses and malware, Saint Francis deployed an Email Security 500 appliance from SonicWALL.

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Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children Selects RedCannon KeyPoint Alchemy for Critical Care of Precious Patient Data

Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (TSRHC) has selected RedCannon Security's KeyPoint Alchemy to ensure the encryption and protection of data kept on USB storage devices carried by physicians and other staff members.

Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children recognized the need for implementing and enforcing mobile data security policies to balance staff efficiency with information security. The hospital implemented KeyPoint Alchemy from RedCannon which enables the transformation of any off-the-shelf USB device into a fully-managed, encrypted and protected data storage solution. With the RedCannon technology, the hospital can also deliver application and security policy updates directly to authorized devices to keep all parties informed and up-to-date.

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MedPartners to Implement the ikaEnterprise System as Its Total Technology Outsourcing Solution

MedPartners, a joint venture between Lutheran Health Network and Three Rivers Medical Associates Independent Physician Association has contracted with ikaSystems to implement its ikaEnterprise system as a technology outsourcing solution. The MedPartners organization provides employers with a variety of cost-effective options from which to choose a group health plan for their employees. The LutheranPreferred PPO is the flagship product of the MedPartners network, with over 14,000 physicians and 63 hospitals in over 28 counties in Indiana.

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Department of Defense Awards Northrop Grumman the Clinical and Health Data Repository Initiative Contract

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Defense to deploy, enhance and maintain the Clinical and Health Data Repository initiative to help the Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) seamlessly share patient information. The Clinical and Health Data Repository initiative provides real-time exchange of computable health data between the Defense Department's electronic health record system, AHLTA, and the VA's HealtheVet patient record system, VistA. Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) sector developed enhancements to AHLTA for the Clinical and Health Data Repository project under a contract award in 2005.

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SonicWALL Solution Delivers Cure for Saint Francis Medical Center's Email Ailments

For Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo, securing email from harmful viruses, spam and malware is as much about protecting its nearly 1,000 email users as it is about protecting the organization and its patients. To combat the burgeoning spam epidemic and the looming threats of electronic viruses and malware, Saint Francis deployed an Email Security 500 appliance from SonicWALL.

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Rhode Island Awards EDS Contract to Create First Statewide Electronic Health Network

The Rhode Island Department of Health has awarded EDS, the state’s longtime Medicaid fiscal agent, a three-year contract to design, implement and manage the nation’s first statewide network for electronic health records. After securing a patient’s permission, the Rhode Island Health Information Exchange (HIE) will consolidate the health information of state residents in a secure network to provide authorized hospitals, doctors, pharmacists and other health care providers with a more complete patient health file to aid in patient care. The HIE system will be developed with strict adherence to patient consent policies and in conjunction with industry best practices with regard to security and privacy standards.

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HHS Selects BearingPoint to Provide HSPD-12 Credentialing Services

BearingPoint, Inc. has been selected to perform an Identity and Access Management Pilot and Full Capability implementation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The objective of the pilot is to validate a process for supplying secure identification or “smart cards” to 112,000 HHS employees and contractors.

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Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System Renews Email Encryption Service

The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System has renewed its 4,000-seat license of ZixCorp's policy-based Email Encryption Service for the next three years. The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System originally deployed ZixCorp's Email Encryption Service in April 2005.

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Wyckoff Heights Medical Center Chooses Accellion to Safeguard Patient Data

Accellion, Inc., a provider of on-demand secure file transfer solutions for enterprises, has been selected by Wyckoff Heights Medical Center to provide a secure means for sharing confidential patient data outside of its network. The Accellion solution has enabled Wyckoff to provide a consistent process for sharing billing information with outside vendors and government agencies without compromising patient confidentiality.

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Capital Health System Streamlines Data and File Management with RFID System from Intermec and Infolinx

The adoption of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996 has made managing and tracking patient information a top priority for health organizations. To help meet HIPAA compliance and improve efficiency, Capital Health System has implemented a file tracking system using a healthcare records management solution from Infolinx Systems Solutions and passive UHF (ultra high frequency) RFID (radio frequency identification) technologies from Intermec (NYSE:IN).

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States and Territories Begin to Reduce Challenges to Electronic Health Information Exchange

Varying interpretations and applications of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules, inconsistencies between state and federal privacy laws and lack of trust are among the biggest challenges to nationwide electronic health information exchange, according to a new report by RTI International for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

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Fujitsu PalmSecure Integrated Into Carolinas HealthCare System Patient Registration Program

The Fujitsu PalmSecure biometric authentication sensor is being deployed throughout the Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) Charlotte-area hospitals as a part of a solution to effectively register patient’s information, and protect their medical record and identity. As the largest healthcare system in the Carolinas, and the third largest public system in the nation, CHS expects to install these biometric sensors in all patient registration sites in their Charlotte-area hospitals.

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St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) Selects Wyse Technology Energy Sipping Clients to Go "Green"

St. Joseph Health System (SJHS), an integrated healthcare service provider based in Orange County, California, will deploy more than 1,500 energy efficient Wyse thin clients to automate and streamline patient care procedures throughout its hospitals and clinics. The Wyse thin clients will dramatically reduce energy costs and provide doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals with real-time access to vital patient information resulting in a quicker diagnosis and improved patient care.

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Health Systems Across the Nation Choose Vendormate

Rising regulatory requirements and growing security demands are driving healthcare providers across the United States to integrated business credentialing and compliance monitoring solutions from Vendormate. Increasingly, healthcare providers rely on Vendormate for on-going assurance that their business partners comply with the government security regulations and the providers’ own policies. Some new health systems that are implementing Vendormate VISION include: University of Chicago Medical Center, Vail Valley Medical Center, Covenant Health, Houston Healthcare, Children’s Hospital Central California, Miami Children’s Hospital and Alamance Regional Medical Center.

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Image Technology Laboratories, Inc. Signs Contract with Bon Secours Community Hospital of Port Jervis, NY

Image Technology Laboratories, Inc. has entered into a five year contract with Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis, NY. The Company will install their WarpSpeed RIS / PACS solution at BSCH during the month of August, including HIS connectivity, failover capability via a secondary server and secure Web access.

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Ireland’s Hermitage Medical Clinic Enables Critical Physician and Patient Services with Enterasys Secure Network

Dublin, Ireland-based Hermitage Medical Clinic has deployed an Enterasys Networks Inc.'s Secure Network infrastructure to provide secure network connectivity for hundreds of healthcare professionals and staff at its new state-of-the-art hospital. The network also enables the hospital to offer secure network access to patients and other guest users. The Hermitage Medical Clinic’s new 1,100-node network includes Enterasys Matrix™ N-Series flow switches at the core and 48-port Enterasys SecureStack™ C-Series secure edge switches with Gigabit ports at the distribution layer. According to Teresa Bowe, network manager at the Hermitage Medical Clinic, leveraging the security features embedded in Enterasys solutions enables the hospital to comply with healthcare security regulations.

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Extreme Networks Selected By Nuffield Hospitals For Next-Generation Wired And Wireless Healthcare Network

Extreme Networks, Inc., is working with specialist integrator Scalable Networks, a leader in secure convergence, to assist Nuffield Hospitals, the United Kingdom's largest network of charitable, independent hospitals, to design and implement a high performance wired and wireless network infrastructure connecting 40 separate hospital sites. The full-featured network solution helps provide investment protection to Nuffield by delivering a network that is well fortified, with bandwidth, security and high availability features, to support both the traditional voice/video over IP technologies, as well as specialized healthcare applications that are essential, such as PACS/RIS, Wireless IPT and wireless medical diagnostics equipment.

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Texas Children’s Hospital Chooses Sentillion To Expedite Creation Of User Accounts Associated With $1.5 Billion Hospital Expansion

Texas Children’s Hospital located in Houston is adding Sentillion Inc.’s Provisioning Manager to its existing deployment of the company’s single sign on and single patient selection solutions. Currently in the midst of an enormous $1.5 billion hospital expansion, the hospital will use Provisioning Manager to create and manage user accounts throughout their lifecycle.

Provisioning Manager will expedite the process for adding new Microsoft Active Directory® and Microsoft Exchange® accounts as well as accounts for accessing the Epic® electronic medical record system and PeopleSoft® applications. Provisioning Manager will also keep track of each transaction whenever application access is granted, modified, suspended or removed as well as details of all privileges granted.

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Claimsnet Signs Electronic Transaction Services Agreement with Carolina Behavioral Health Alliance

Carolina Behavioral Health Alliance (CBHA) has signed an agreement with ClaimsNet.com Inc., a leading provider of electronic transaction services to the Healthcare industry for services associated with electronic healthcare transactions. CBHA is a provider-owned managed behavioral health organization dedicated to delivering quality mental health and chemical dependency services. Based in Winston-Salem, NC, CBHA is owned by three not-for-profit North Carolina medical schools: East Carolina University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest University Health Sciences. Under the terms of the agreement, Claimsnet will serve as the communications link between Carolina Behavioral Health Alliance and healthcare providers for the electronic delivery of claims and other related transactions.

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AHIP Launches New Certificate Program for IT Professionals

Information technology and business consulting professionals may now attain an industry credential demonstrating domain expertise through a new certificate program developed by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Infosys, a global consulting and information technology (IT) solutions company, is the first to offer this program to its employees.

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ZixConnect Allows Minnesota County to Send and Receive Secure Emails with Key Business Partners

St. Louis County has selected the Zix Corporation's latest encryption offering, ZixConnect(TM), a managed Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS) service designed for secure business communications. St. Louis County uses ZixCorp's Email Encryption Service and added on the additional ZixConnect service to communicate directly with the State of Minnesota. ZixCorp has many local, state and national government agencies that safeguard email communications with its policy-based service. The Company's government customers include county governments such as St. Louis County, various state health regulators, 13 state banking regulators and several federal banking regulatory agencies.

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nCipher joins SAFE-BioPharma Association Vendor Partner Program

nCipher plc has become a SAFE-BioPharma Association Vendor Partner. This non-profit organization was founded by the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies to develop a secure means of replacing hand-signed paper based documents and forms with legally approved digitally signed documents.

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Wireless Adoption Leaps Ahead, Advanced Encryption Gains Ground in the Post-WEP Era

The number of wireless access points - including public hotspots and business networks - continues to rise at an explosive rate in the world's major financial centers, as revealed by research commissioned by RSA, The Security Division of EMC. The survey's findings also indicate that the call for stronger security in wireless networks is starting to resonate among businesses. The largest year-over-year increase in wireless adoption was found in London, where there are 160 percent more wireless access points (APs) than in 2006. The percentage increase in New York was a substantial 49 percent; and in Paris, 44 percent. Looking purely at business access points, London also leads, with a 180 percent leap over last year, as compared to jumps of 57 percent and 45 percent New York and Paris, respectively.

As measured by the use of either advanced encryption or Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), London experienced notable improvement in the security of business wireless networks over the last year. In contrast, security levels in New York and Paris improved only incrementally. Over the course of the past year, use of wireless security measures in business networks increased as follows:

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Baptist Health System Strengthens Its Consumer and Employee Websites with MEDSEEK’s eHealth Solutions

MEDSEEK, a leading provider of enterprise e-health solutions with 600-plus hospital customers in the United States and Canada, announced today that it has been selected by Baptist Health System, Inc., one of the largest healthcare systems in Alabama, to assist the hospital system in strengthening its relationship with key constituents and their experience with the organization through its redesigned consumer and employee web portals. The contract includes MEDSEEK’s Content Management System, Strategic Marketing Services, Channel Manager Module and integrated health content from A.D.A.M., Inc., a leading publisher of interactive, visually engaging health and medical information.

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Evolve Technologies Links Southern Maryland Cancer Treatment Centers

Evolve Technologies (http://www.evolvetech.com), a company that specializes in providing information technology (IT) solutions for small businesses, announced today the successful completion of a project linking the two operating sites of the Chesapeake Potomac Regional Cancer Center (CPRCC). In a related announcement, Evolve Technologies will provide CPRCC ongoing IT support, including complete helpdesk services.

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CGH Medical Center Selects Dialog Medical

Dialog Medical, the leading provider of informed consent and patient education systems for hospitals and physician practices, today announced a new contract for its iMedConsent application with CGH Medical Center, a 99-bed community medical center based in the Rock River Valley region of northern Illinois. Implementation of the informed consent application is scheduled to begin in early July. iMedConsent includes consent forms for more than two thousand medical and surgical procedures; patient education documents for thousands of diagnoses and treatments; and an extensive anatomical image gallery that allows the provider to annotate images and simplify complex topics for the patient. In addition, the application automates the completion of patient documentation ranging from HIPAA disclosures to advance directives.

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CIGNA HealthCare Chooses SAS Business Intelligence for Member and Employer Group Informatics

CIGNA HealthCare, one of the nation's largest health services companies, has selected Vontu, Inc.'s Vontu 7 product to help reduce the risk of data loss and support compliance with HIPAA privacy regulations and PCI Data Security Standards. CIGNA plans to use Vontu to discover and protect confidential data, monitor and prevent such data from leaving the network and automatically enforce data loss prevention policies. In addition to content-aware detection capabilities, Vontu 7 also offers remediation workflow, role-based access control and incident correlation reports.

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Role Management and User Access Control As Top Identity Management Priorities

Role definition and prioritization of internal business processes are the most daunting barriers to getting started with provisioning, according to a new survey by Courion® Corporation on the priorities and challenges of implementing provisioning and access compliance strategies.

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Seafarer's International Union Selects Plexis Solution

Seafarer's International Union (SIU), the largest North American union representing merchant mariners, selected Plexis to provide benefits administration, electronic data interchange (EDI), web portal and scanning/OCR solution for Seafarer's Health and Benefits Plan.

The Seafarers International Union, Atlantic, Gulf, Lakes and Inland Waters District, is based in southern Maryland and represents unlicensed United States merchant mariners sailing aboard U.S.-flag vessels in the deep sea, Great Lakes and inland trades. Today, the SIU is the largest North American union representing merchant mariners.

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CIGNA Selects Vontu for Data Loss Prevention

CIGNA HealthCare, one of the nation's largest health services companies, has selected Vontu, Inc.'s Vontu 7 product to help reduce the risk of data loss and support compliance with HIPAA privacy regulations and PCI Data Security Standards. CIGNA plans to use Vontu to discover and protect confidential data, monitor and prevent such data from leaving the network and automatically enforce data loss prevention policies. In addition to content-aware detection capabilities, Vontu 7 also offers remediation workflow, role-based access control and incident correlation reports.

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SwedishAmerican Health System to Implement Vendormate Vendor Credentialing and Integrated Badges

SwedishAmerican Health System has selected Vendormate to deliver its robust vendor credentialing and compliance monitoring solution to help manage vendor data and facility access. Rich Walsh, President, SwedishAmerican Hospital and COO for SwedishAmerican Health System, recognized a need for a more standardized and consistent method of collecting and verifying vendor information as well as better controlling vendor access to their facilities. “We wanted to know more about who we are doing business with, who is in our building and whether all vendors are doing the necessary things to keep SwedishAmerican compliant.”

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Nevada Office of Veterans Services Selects SecureWave Sanctuary to Prevent Installation of Malicious Applications and Removal of Sensitive Data

The Nevada Office of Veterans Services (NOVS) is using SecureWave’s Sanctuary® endpoint security software to proactively enforce its policies regarding the use of removable storage media.

“An evaluation of our security posture revealed that removable storage media - including external hard drives and USB memory sticks­represented a serious threat to the proprietary data stored in our systems,” said Jeff Fuhler, information security officer at NOVS. “Active Directory did not allow us to prohibit employees from using portable storage media to remove information or install any malicious programs designed to alter or pilfer data. Someone - whether it was a disgruntled employee or a guest - could easily plug in a device and download proprietary information or even worse, install a malicious application or virus. This was a serious issue because much of the information we have on file is medical records, so we needed to do whatever was necessary to comply with HIPAA and keep that data safe. Sanctuary is the perfect solution for our situation.”

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George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates Deploys BIO-key® Biometric Identification Solution

The George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates (MFA) in Washington, D.C., has succcessfully deployedBIO-key International, Inc.'s biometric identification solution to protect patient medical records.

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3G Devices Provide Remote Voice and Data Capabilities for Clinical Managers

Abington Memorial Hospital (AMH), a 570-bed regional teaching hospital in southeastern Pennsylvania, is using a 3G-powered AT&T wireless solution that enhances the connectivity of the clinical management team and administrators beyond the hospital campus. AT&T is providing approximately 130 Samsung BlackJack™ smart devices that operate on the AT&T BroadbandConnect network to AMH physicians, department heads and clinical managers. The hand-held devices provide remote information access to key personnel. Clinical managers can use the BlackJack to contact physicians with critical patient updates, and physicians can use the same device to call the hospital or patient to discuss the case.

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Parkview Adventist Medical Center Combines Imprivata and Biometrics to Put Security at Physicians' Fingertips

Parkview Adventist Medical Center in Brunswick, Maine, has deployed Imprivata OneSign™ Single Sign-On (SSO). Working closely with Parkview Adventist Medical Center, Imprivata was able to get OneSign SSO up and running in just two days.

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UPMC Taps TriCipher To Protect Patient Health Information

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) will use TriCipher’smultifactor authentication solution to protect access to personal healthinformation on its online patient healthcare portal and physician network ­putting the medical center at the forefront of aggressively protectingpatients’ identities.

The $6 billion medical center’s Web site portal will become the centralinformation access point for more t