Industry Insight

ClearDATA Launches Next Evolution of Its Health Care Cloud

ClearDATA recently announced the next evolution of its health care-dedicated, HIPAA-compliant cloud-computing platform. The latest version will enhance ClearDATA’s offering in every major area, including performance/speed, security, compliance, reliability, and usability.

According to HIMSS, a vast majority of cloud users plan to expand their use yet many reported performance issues.

“As the volume of data grows exponentially, health care providers and application developers can no longer afford to rely solely on internal infrastructure, which is why so many are looking to the cloud,” says Matt Ferrari, chief technology officer of ClearDATA. “They want assurances, however, that the performance, reliability, and usability levels they’re used to from internal systems will be there, and that all protected health information will remain secure. The enhancements to our HIPAA-compliant cloud platform push the boundaries in all these areas.”

Among the most significant enhancements to the ClearDATA infrastructure are the following:

• High-Performance Storage: ClearDATA now offers both standard hard disk drive spinning disk and solid-state disk storage to offer faster access to data and applications. The standard storage offers superior performance, delivering extremely fast yet economical access that is ideally suited to primary storage. Two tiers of solid state storage allow organizations to choose the level of performance they require for various operations, such as near-immediate boot-up of applications, high-volume transaction processing or managing heavy traffic loads on Web servers, with performance levels guaranteed.

• Superior Compliance: With all the regulations required around the protection and preservation of health data, having airtight and encrypted data backup is critical. ClearDATA now uses advanced software from CommVault to ensure all compliance requirements are met, including encryption at-rest and in-transit. Among the advantages are agentless backup for virtual machines, up to 200% faster backups, custom reporting, end user self-service and better deduplication to increase backup speed while reducing storage requirements.

• Enhanced Security: ClearDATA has made a number of security enhancements that exceed HIPAA requirements to ensure that protected health information remains safe. Dedicated, fully configurable virtual firewalls built into every virtual machine are now available to organizations at no additional cost.

The network architecture has been significantly improved to allow rapid scaling to enterprise levels without compromising security. Internal servers have new enhanced log and threat management, as well as Security Incident and Event Monitoring. Even physical security has been heightened through the implementation of a new data center.

ClearDATA also introduced a new self-service customer portal that enables authorized users to create and destroy new virtual machines, interact with support ticketing and view billing invoices. The portal simplifies management while giving organizations a clear view of critical data around their cloud usage.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to our customers we have looked at every aspect of our offering and taken bold steps to keep the quality and reliability at the forefront of the industry,” Ferrari says. “Health care organizations today face many grave concerns. Worrying about their data in the cloud shouldn’t be one of them.”

— Source: ClearDATA

Imprivata Launches Product to Enable Major Shift
to Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances

Imprivata, an HIT security company, recently launched Imprivata Confirm ID, the industry’s first comprehensive product to enable a major shift from paper to electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS). Imprivata Confirm ID simplifies adoption of regulatory requirements for EPCS, helping care providers address the workflow inefficiencies and potential for fraud caused by paper-based prescriptions. Imprivata Confirm ID also integrates with leading EHRs and offers multiple DEA-approved two-factor authentication options for prescription signing, giving providers a single, consistent ePrescribing experience for all medications.

“The volume of prescriptions for controlled substances, which are primarily paper-based, continues to rise, creating clinical workflow inefficiencies, decreasing patient satisfaction, and increasing the risk of drug diversion and fraud. At the same time, prescription drug addiction and abuse is a growing public health epidemic,” says Omar Hussain, president and CEO of Imprivata. “The industry is looking for technologies that address this inefficiency and potential for fraud while enhancing patient care. Imprivata has worked closely with customers, leading EHR vendors, and other partners to deliver Imprivata Confirm ID, a comprehensive, integrated product that simplifies the adoption of regulatory requirements for EPCS and enables fast, secure ePrescribing of controlled substances.”

Imprivata Confirm ID is the industry’s first product that offers provider identity-proofing, supervised enrollment of providers’ approved credentials, support for multiple DEA-approved two-factor authentication modalities for prescription signing, and comprehensive auditing and reporting tools. Imprivata Confirm ID also simplifies EPCS by integrating directly into the ePrescribing workflows of leading EHRs and giving providers the necessary flexibility to leverage the two-factor authentication options that meet all their prescribing workflow requirements. This increases efficiency and provider satisfaction while maintaining security, which minimizes the potential for fraud or drug diversion.

“EPCS plays an important role in addressing America’s opioid abuse epidemic by eliminating the exposure of a physician’s signature and DEA number, which greatly reduces the risk of drug diversion or fraud,” says Michael A. Lee, MD, director of clinical informatics at Atrius Health. “EPCS also decreases errors and removes cumbersome workflows associated with high-cost, hand-written prescriptions, which increases productivity for prescribers and safety and convenience for patients. For providers working within a highly regulated environment, tools like this that can help achieve compliance, increase efficiency, and improve patient outcomes are invaluable.”

Imprivata Confirm ID supports fingerprint biometric identification and one-time-password tokens, giving providers the option to use the two-factor authentication modalities that best fit their prescribing workflows. Imprivata Confirm ID automates the presentation of the authentication modality, prompting prescribers with only the options available and allowed for EPCS. This creates a single signing experience for all medications, which improves provider productivity and increases patient satisfaction.

— Source: Imprivata