12 October 1999. Thanks to DS.
AMA physician credentials enable private, confidential online communications
New York City - The American Medical Association (AMA) today announced that it is working with Intel Corporation to deploy a new form of electronic credential that will protect physician and patient privacy and confidentiality when they use the Internet to send and receive medical information.
Digital credentials-which uniquely identify individuals over the Internet- will be issued to physicians early next year, providing a more reliable authentication technique than passwords for secure Internet transactions.
"The potential for the Internet to be used to obtain lab results, send prescriptions to pharmacies and receive patient files makes it vitally important that systems are in place to ensure that the patient's privacy and confidentiality are protected," said Richard Corlin, MD, Speaker of the House of Delegates of the AMA. "By authenticating the identity of the physician and ensuring the privacy of the patient, you enable a wide variety of routine medical transactions to occur online, benefiting busy physicians and enabling better patient care."
The authentication service announcement was made at Internet Health Day II in New York City, created by Intel and sponsored by the AMA. In October 1998 and again this year, Intel and the AMA have brought together physicians and health care industry leaders to explore how the Internet is impacting the practice of medicine and changing the way consumers access health information, products and services.
The decision to provide digital credentials is an outgrowth of the "Electronic Data Interchange Report" issued by the AMA Council on Medical Service in 1998. The Council recommended that the AMA work to establish consensus for electronic storage and transmission of medical records as an important means of protecting patient privacy. The Council also recommended that the AMA develop guidelines to develop educational tools or models in accordance with industry electronic security guidelines to assist physicians in compliance with state and federal regulations.
The AMA plans to offer digital credentials to physicians in early 2000. Testing of a prototype for physicians will begin later this month.
"The AMA is the trusted voice in medicine that brings essential elements necessary to authenticate physicians over the Internet, " said Ronald J. Whittier, senior vice president and general manager of Intel Content Services. "This service provides the framework to help bring physicians to the Internet in a trusted, more secure environment."
# For more information, please contact: Linda Stepanich Director, News & Information (312) 464-2410
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D. G. Sweigert
General Dynamics - Communication Systems
http://www.gd-cs.com