The healthcare industry is challenged with providing secure access to authorized professionals while ensuring patient record privacy required by government regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) without compromising the medical staff’s need for quick, simple access to critical health data. All of these challenges have to be met at a lower cost while constantly increasing the security and efficiency of the healthcare system.

DigitalPersona solves these challenges by providing authentication solutions that deliver security and convenience with the touch of a finger. Unlike passwords, smart cards and tokens, fingerprints provide an identifier unique to each person that cannot be lost, stolen or utilized by others and provides healthcare professionals quick access to networks and applications. Fingerprints also provide user-unique audit trails that assist with compliance regulations.

With DigitalPersona Pro, users log on to Windows, domains, applications and Web pages by the simple touch of a fingerprint reader. All user data is centrally managed and stored using existing tools, with a proven security architecture that provides a scalable solution for organizations large and small.

Healthcare organizations quickly realize immediate benefits from DigitalPersona’s secure authentication solution including:

Improvement in Network Security

DigitalPersona Pro replaces password-based authentication that is susceptible to hacking, spoofing and lax security practices with fingerprint authentication assuring that only authorized users can gain access to networks and applications.

Assistance With Regulatory Compliance and Improvement in AuditabilityDigitalPersona Pro provides a means of user-unique audit trails to assist healthcare organizations achieve compliance with regulations such as:

• HIPAA – the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
• State Security Breach Laws

Reduction in IT Support Costs

According to Gartner, on average, organizations spend $150 per employee/per year on help desk costs driven by forgotten and expired passwords. In addition, productivity is lost when people are “locked out” of their systems. DigitalPersona Pro takes passwords and password management out of the hands of users. After deploying DigitalPersona Pro, the Office of the Secretary of Defense reported a 90 percent reduction in password-related help desk calls[1] – along with high user satisfaction. Fast, Convenient User Switching Shared computer workstations such as nursing stations require rapid logon for multiple users. DigitalPersona Pro Kiosk replaces logon credentials, such as username and password, with fingerprint-based authentication. Authorized users can quickly gain access to networks and programs without having to log on and off between users.

For more information please visit our website at www.digitalpersona.com or contact DigitalPersona at 877-378-2744. Free evaluation units can be requested at www.digitalpersona.com/mriht.

Endnote

1. Government Computer News, March 2004