Author Archives: Nancy Alpers

iShare Medical wins InnovateHER 2016 Kansas City Business Challenge!

iShare Medical℠ is the winner of the InnovateHER 2016 Kansas City Business Challenge, which was held November 16-22 in Kansas City as a part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The goal of the nationwide women’s business competition was to highlight innovative products and services that help impact and empower the lives of women and their families.

iShare Medical℠ is a Women-Owned Small Business that provides software tools to help patients and their physicians get access to their medical records. “It’s about getting the right information, on the right patient, to the right doctor, at the right time, every time” said iShare Medical℠ President and CEO Linda Van Horn, MBA.

Women are the caregivers of their families taking the lead role in managing the health and care of themselves and their families. But it is not easy to get access to health care information which is often spread over multiple systems and multiple providers. This is where iShare Medical℠ can help.

“Getting medical information safely and securely to the right person when and where it is needed can help reduce the cost of healthcare, improve care and outcomes, and save lives,” stated Van Horn. “iShare Medical’s software tools help women better manage and automate their families medical care by putting all their medical records from all of their providers in one central location”.

The InnovateHER competition was sponsored by Ewing Kauffman Foundation, Mayor James Office, Central Exchange, Blue Valley Schools CAPS, WE, Women’s Business Center, and Midwest Women’s Business Enterprise Counsel as local sponsors for the U.S. Small Business Administration 2016 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge and Summit.

At the kick-off of the 2016 challenge, the SBA made this announcement: “The SBA is pleased to announce this second round of our InnovateHER Business Challenge, building on the success of our 2015 challenge where we engaged over 100 organizations and reached over 1,000 entrepreneurs across the nation,” said SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet. “We have expanded on our pilot InnovateHER Women’s Business Challenge to include a women’s summit that will make the competition more impactful.”

The InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge and Summit kicked off with a series of local competitions of which InnovateHER 2016 Kansas City was one. Through this competition, the SBA sought to find the best products or services that make significant impacts on women and families, fill a need in the marketplace, and have the potential for commercialization. Women control 80% of the purchasing power of the U.S. yet make up less than 5% of the venture capitalists. The InnovateHER challenge was designed to empower investment in products and services for women by women owned and other small businesses.

As the winner of the local competition, iShare Medical℠ advances to the semi-final round. Then the SBA will select up to 10 finalists from the semi-final round who will be invited to the National InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge and Summit in March held in Washington, D.C. during Women’s History Month March of 2016. The finalists will pitch their products and ideas to a panel of expert judges and compete for $70,000 in prize money provided by Microsoft.

Click here for more information about InnovateHER 2016.

Secure Transfer Protocols are not Just for Medical Records

Unsecure emails and text messaging of medical information violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements and could have serious legal consequences. An answer to this problem is to use Direct Messaging for information too private and sensitive for unsecure transfer.

Direct Messaging involves the use of a secure, encrypted communication standard (i.e., Direct Protocol) for the exchange of private sensitive clinical and business information. Direct Messaging can be used as a secure alternative for text messages, email, web portals and smartphone communications. Already, it is widely used by health information exchanges such as the Kansas Health Information Network.

Under Stage 2 Meaningful Use, providers are required to use the Direct Protocol for Direct Messaging, but many vendors don’t have this capability. This is where iShare Medical℠ can help. iShare Medical℠ provides secure Direct Messaging capability that significantly reduces risk by providing HIPAA-Compliant exchange of medical records to and from ID-Proofed entities over a nationwide secure network. Our network spans 40,000 health care providers, 50 Health Information Exchanges and supports nearly 300 EHR systems. Find out why your peers have choosen iShare Medical℠. Call us today at (816) 249-2555 ext 1.

Linda Van Horn, MBA | Wednesday, November 11, 2015

VA and IHS are the First Federal Agencies to become Accredited DirectTrust HISPs

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Indian Health Service (IHS) have become the first federal agencies to become Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) Accredited DirectTrust Health Information Services Providers (HISPs). This accreditation enables the VA and IHS to exchange messages directly and securely with other EHNAC Accredited DirectTrust HISPs in what is known as the DirectTrust Accredited Trust Bundle.

The VA and IHS join iShare Medical℠ as one of only 40 EHNAC Accredited DirectTrust HISPs that are helping to power interoperability in the United States healthcare system.

Only EHNAC Accredited DirectTrust HISPs can display this symbol.

DirectTrust

DirectTrust is a collaborative, non-profit organization that supports the Direct Protocol, a communications standard that is required by Stage 2 Meaningful Use and is used to exchange medical records over a nationwide network. The DirectTrust network includes over 40,000 health care entities, 50 Health Information Exchanges and 760,000 Direct Addresses.

ENHAC Accreditation

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) is an independent, federally recognized standards development and accrediting organization that audits and certifies compliance with HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification rules and Direct Protocol. As a part of the accreditation process HISPs must prove interoperability; the ability to exchange medical records with other HISPs in the Accredited DirectTrust Bundle.

HISPs provide services to anyone having a HIPAA compliant right to access medical records such as physicians, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, and post-acute care, patients, insurers, state departments of health, and emergency responders. Think of a HISP as a clearing house for medical records that allows for the secure exchange of medical records over an encrypted HIPAA Compliant network.

In order to get set up to exchange medical records the sender and the receiver of medical records must be trusted. This means:

The sender and receiver must be ID Proofed to verify their identity
Once verified a certificate is created. This certificate is usually valid for one year. The certificate has two pieces, a private key and a public key. The public key is attached to a “Direct Address” that looks like an email address. The Direct Address is given to exchange partners. The private key is used to unencrypt the message. Only the owner of the Direct Address who has the private key can open the encrypted message.

To obtain your Direct Address including a certificate that is valid for one year, contact iShare Medical℠ at (816) 249-2555 ext. 1 or click here: iShare Medical℠ Messaging

Once set up, your unique Direct Address can be used to send and receive Direct Messages over the DirectTrust Network of over 40,000 health care entities, 50 Health Information Exchanges and 760,000 Direct Addresses.

Each time a message is sent, the HISP authenticates the sender and receiver of the data, validates the certificate, encrypts the message, and securely sends the message to the recipient where it is encrypted by the recipient’s secret private key.

Messages cannot be opened by anyone else except the recipient to whom the message is addressed.

Direct Messages can go seamlessly behind the scenes from one EHR to another or some HISPs like iShare Medical℠ provide software that allows messages to be sent and read by individuals who have no EHR software. iShare Medical’s software is called iShare Medical℠ Messaging and it allows individual or organization to view, download and transmit messages using internet connected and enabled devices such as an iPhone, iPad, Laptop, Android, Tablet and Desktop Computer.

Using an EHNAC Accredited DirectTrust HISP can help improve care coordination by making it safer and more timely for healthcare providers to share health information in a secure Direct message instead of by fax, hand delivery or mail. Timely exchange of health information is expected to reduce costs through reducing duplication of services. Interoperabiltiy is about getting the right information on the right patient to the right provider at the right time, every time so it can be used to improve care and outcomes, reduce cost, and ultimately save lives.

Having the VA and IHS as part of the DirectTrust Accredited Trust Bundle is a critical step in expanding the nationwide health information network. DirectTrust President and CEO David Kibbe, MD, MBA stated that “Given the explosive growth in EHNAC-DirectTrust Accredited members and substantial benefits of electronic health information exchange via Direct, we anticipate that the Department of Defense, Medicare/CMS, and other state and federal agencies will shortly follow the path of the VA and Indian Health Services”.

iShare Medical℠ congratulates the VA and IHS and we look forward to the possibility of other Federal Agencies also joining the EHNAC Accredited DirectTrust Bundle.

Linda Van Horn, MBA | Friday, October 16, 2015