Verizon Becomes the Latest to Jump on the Secure Messaging and Email Service for Doctors and Hospitals With One More Choice

If you read here often enough there’s been plenty of talk about the use of the Direct Interface to connect to the NIHN for secure messaging and it appears that Verizon has created one of their own and I am guessing this is outside the NIHN network since they have a lot of options.  Microsoft was one of the first with HealthVault to develop an interface for email between patients and doctors, basically anyone who set up a special email address. 

Microsoft Delivers Encrypted E-mail Using Government “Direct Project” Security Protocols With HealthVault Personal Health Records

In addition EHR companies like e-ClinicalWorks announced their subscription service for any MD who has an EHR to communicate with any other doctor who has either theirs or another medical records system. 

 

EClinicalWorks Launches “Join the Network”–Invests $10 Million Over the Next Year to Expand Peer to Peer Sharing Via NHIN Program for Users with eClinicalWorks and For Those Using Other EHRS

With the initial roll out of the Direct Project to connect to the NIHN network over 60 participants announced their participation, both medical record companies and Health HIT companies.  About a year ago there were a number of hospitals and doctors already using the NwHIN network for communicating and secure emails and also for use with government agencies.

Hospitals and Providers Using NHIN (Nationwide Health Information Network) To Connect and Share Medical Records With the VA and DOD And Even With Each Other

This looks like one more choice for doctors and hospitals and Verizon might have a no brainer platform to make it easy.  The NwHIN though can also bring in health exchanges as well as individual users, so here we go one more choice and who knows how many more might show up too.  BD

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Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), the second-biggest U.S. telephone company, will introduce the first national service enabling doctors to securely exchange medical records no matter what computer system they use.

The service will begin tomorrow following testing among about a dozen U.S. hospital systems and other clients. Under the program, medical providers who pay a monthly fee will be able to share data, texts and e-mails while still meeting U.S. privacy standards. About $5 billion of Verizon’s $111 billion in revenue in 2011 came from health-related customers, said Peter Tippett, the New York-based company’s chief medical officer.

Physicians have traditionally avoided e-mail because of security concerns and data limits that often prevent them from sending large files such as X-Rays and MRIs, Tippett said. Verizon’s product, known as Secure Universal Message Services, overcomes those problems and is likely to attract “thousands” of medical providers, he said, declining to be more specific.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-04/verizon-to-introduce-secure-e-mails-for-medical-records.html