Federated Identity for Medical Records/Health IT

Currently, there are many disparate systems in use for managing, updating and maintaining patient health records and medical/health IT. When patients are mobile, when they move from one insurance company to another, when they move from military or governemtn serivce to the private sector, there is a need for improvement in broader accessibility to patient health and medical records with assurances of privacy and security on a need-to-know/need-to-share basis.

If there was a trusted model that would identify, authenticate and provide permission-based and role-based access to a patient’s records, doctors and health care providers, pharmacies, insurance companies, and patients would be able to respond to medical issues more quickly and accurately, and in a much more cost-effective manner once such a solution is implemented.

Why is it important?

In a world that is increasing mobile information-rich, and one in which patients and medical care providers, payors and payees must be able to interface and interoperate, there has to be a means for greater and easier access to patient data and the research and treatments available to assist in managing patient well-being.

As patients, we must be our own advocates, and as providers of medical care and related services, the community must be able to respond in near real-time, if not real-time.

Cost containment is also becoming more and more critical, and the use of IT in a private, legal, protected, permission-based manner would seem to drive improvements in services and should assist in managing sky-rocketing costs.

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