New Health Care IT Solutions On the Block

Health care IT is officially blowing up. Health care is one of the fastest-growing verticals out there, but has historically lagged behind other industries when it comes to adopting new technology and applications.

The winds are starting to change. The rapidly growing and changing health-care landscape has given birth to an increasing number of health care IT solutions as of late.

One is a technology use case in the emerging area of telehealth and video collaboration. Cone Health, a health-care organization in Greensboro, North Carolina, operates a tele-ICU called eLink. eLink is designed to reduce mortality, shorten time in the ICU and even lower progression to septic shock.

eLink recently got a bit of an upgrade, integrating Yorktel’s Univago HE as its video platform. This snazzy new solution allows Cone Health to customize new and existing workflows.

Yorktel, a provider of health-care communications and managed services, recently announced completion of the integration of two-way audio and video communications launched directly from Epic. This is the solution that has been integrated into Cone Health’s virtual care service.

eLink supports more than 1,000 calls per week providing expanded care for critically ill patients throughout the Cone Health network. Some benefits of the new integration with Univago HE are:

This is a cool, real-world example of how telehealth technologies can create efficiencies and improve outcomes for health-care organizations.

And now, a dive into IoT healthcare. With all the connectivity that comes with IoT, needless to say, this is a massive area of potential for MSPs.

Integrating IoT features into medical devices (which then becomes the internet of medical things, or IoMT) can significantly improve the effectiveness and overall quality of medical care, especially when it comes to patients who may need constant monitoring or preventive interventions (such as the elderly or patients with chronic conditions).

It’s important to note that even with all the benefits of IoT in health care, there also are risks.

This is now more vital than ever as poor implementations of IoT medical devices can not only affect the patient, but the overall infrastructure that keeps hospitals running.

But things are changing.

nCipher Security, a provider of trust, integrity and control for business critical information and applications, and Device Authority, a provider of identity and access management (IAM) for IoT and blockchain, recently announced its partnership to deliver trust of medical IoT.

Basically, Device Authority’s KeyScaler platform, combined with nCipher’s nShield hardware security modules (HSMs), provides high-assurance device authentication, managed end-to-end encryption, and certificate provisioning for IoT devices. This is ideal for …

… medical, industrial and other smart connected products. KeyScaler delivers a scalable, device-based authentication and authorization to establish a strong root of trust and identity assurance for medical IoT devices.

The magic is in the pairing. The idea is that the combination of Device Authority’s surgical robot systems, which perform a variety of treatments and procedures on patients in hospitals, and nCipher’s security system for issuing and managing device credentials, not only makes surgery less invasive for the patient, but also enhances patient safety and allows organizations to confidently deploy business critical IoT projects.

“While health-care data has long been a prominent target for cybercriminals, connected medical devices add a new layer of vulnerability,” says Scott Kemish, vice president of channel sales, nCipher Security. “But, the risks inherent can be mitigated with device authentication, end-to-end encryption, and certificate provisioning.”

On the channel front, nCipher recently launched its nFinity partner program. nFinity provides a framework and platform for nCipher’s technical, channel and service-provider partners to integrate, resell and host nCipher technology.

“Our partnership with Device Authority is one of hundreds of technical integrations we have in place across a multitude of sectors and use cases globally, and it further deepens the diverse selection of hardened and robust encryption solutions our channel resellers can offer their customers,” said Kemish.

These are just two of the solutions showing up on the health care IT playground these days. Health-care IT has become a driver of better business results, but more importantly, has become focused on how technology can be used to improve patient care and outcomes. These technologies and solutions, among others, are certainly a step in that direction.