Ed Ricks, the VP Information Services & CIO at Beaufort Memorial Hospital (an Imprivata customer), has started blogging for Computerworld on healthcare IT issues.…

Physicians and nurses are on the front lines caring for patients while at the same time living through unprecedented change in thei…

Are you ready for Stage 2 Meaningful Use? The proposed ruling states hospitals must attest to 18 objectives, 16 core and 2 of 4 menu objectives and Stage 2 now begins in FFY 2014 (10/1/2013). By consolidating some objectives, introducing new ones and raising the threshold on some the bar is certainly raised. …

Here’s the problem.…

I thought I’d give you the condensed version of the great customer presentations and comments we had here at booth #3160 from the HIMSS show floor.…

A great day at the Imprivata stand today.…

In the case of a OneSign implementation, the answer may surprise you.…

VMworld was markedly different from a healthcare IT point of view this year. I wrote a guest blog for HealthITExchange summarizing a few of my thoughts which you can find here. Were you at VMworld this year? What was your impression?…

Steve Coplan of The 451 Group recently published a terrific report on Virtual Desktops that examines the intersection of management and security. Steve hit the nail on the head in describing the importance of user authentication in securing virtual desktops. This is especially relevant in healthcare, which is rapidly adopting virtual desktop access (VDA) to improve clinician productivity and secure patient data. We were also pleased that Steve mentioned the work Imprivata is doing with VMware around fast, seamless user access for virtual desktops...…

Over at the Life as a Healthcare CIO blog, John D. Halamka MD captured a list of top barriers to electronic health record (EHR) implementations, then added on with another ‘Top 10’ that puts a little fun into the serious business of EHRs. Below are barriers that stood out to me from a data security and healthcare access management perspective, and I urge you to check out John’s blog for more specifics – definitely worth the read and a great source of information. The key Barriers to deploying EHR worth noting...…

A recent BankInfoSecurity article reported that the Massachusetts Data Protection Law has been delayed yet again, pushing the new effective date back to March 1, 2010. As part of the law, organizations are required to protect confidential data – social security numbers, driver license numbers and financial account/credit/debit card numbers – of Massachusetts citizens. The regulation covers all non-public data, regardless of how the company obtains the information.…

We've found that the best resource for better understanding how to solve employee access management are our customers. So over the past week or so, as a few of our customers have shared details of their OneSign experiences, I thought you may want to hear what some of them are saying and doing...…

Recently, according to a Federal Computer Week article, the Drug Enforcement Administration proposed rules to allow e-Prescribing of controlled substances, such as painkillers and stimulants. The proposed rules require doctors to use two forms of identification for each transmission of e-Prescriptions for controlled substances in addition to an annual audit of each system by a certified public accountancy. Under current rules, doctors may use e-Prescribing for most prescriptions but must sign a written prescription for Schedule II controlled substances, such as Nembutal, OxyContin and opium. The DEA rule, if it becomes final, would allow doctors to use the same system for generating and transmitting all prescriptions.…

I'm often asked what seems like a simple question: 'what's new in identity management?' As simple as it is, it's a big question so here are five trends that I see out there for identity management... at least for now.…

This week Imprivata announced its partnership with VMware, an exciting time for our company as more and more customers and prospects inquire about combining virtual desktops with simplified and secure user access to improve user productivity. Partnering with a market leader like VMware presents a great opportunity for both organizations to deliver a secure working environment that allows end users to access their desktops from machines in any location.…

Greetings from the Eighteenth National HIPAA Summit in Washington, DC! It’s turned out to be an interesting event pulling in an array of people as it is co-located with the National Health IT Summit for Government Leaders, the National Health Information Exchange (HIE) Summit and the International mHealth Networking and Web Conference. Mid-way through the week-long event, there are some notable highlights from the conversations I’m having, and from the chatter on the floor and the breakout rooms. In no particular order...…

In February 2009, the Obama administration announced that $2.0 billion in grant money will be made available to help hospitals and other health care providers transition to electronic health records (EHR). This past Monday, the White House took a big step and launched the first of two grant programs under the HITECH act which lays the groundwork for EHR.…

The stimulus package recently signed by President Obama has been the cause for vigorous debate. One by-product of the package that has not been widely discussed is a provision that would reshape the medical industry by creating a central repository of computerized medical records for all American's. An increase in the level of electronic information of this magnitude exponentially raises the vulnerability of a security breach, which we'll focus on today.…

Risk management seems to be the conversation du jour. I was just a the Lenel Paradigm Conference in Rochester with some of their leading security consultants and the topic that constantly came up was Risk and how security practioners needed to understand the business drivers around mitigating risk. With access and authentication management-centric security breaches like LendingTree and Societe Generale making headlines and compliance requirements mandating greater information security, how does one even begin to understand what a company needs to do?…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced new rules surrounding health information privacy and data security that is important for everyone involved in healthcare IT (HIT) to understand. By now, you’ve likely seen these rules, however the Healthcare IT Consultant blog has a nice synopsis of the news that drills down into the aspects most relevant for those in the Imprivata community. Pulling the key points from that blog and summarizing the primary requirements of the rules, here are some things to consider...…