Healthcare Informatics

The explosion of health care data brings up new challenges to the efficiency of patient care and privacy safeguards. Smart cards solve both challenges with secure, mobile storage and distribution of everything from emergency data to benefits status. Many socialized countries have already adopted smart cards as credentials for their health networks and as a means of carrying an immediately retrievable Electronic Health Record (EHR). Benefits include:
• Rapid, accurate identification of patients; improved treatment
• Reduction of fraud with authentication of provider/patient visits and insurance eligibility
• A convenient way to carry data between systems or to sites without systems
• Reduction of records maintenance costs

Embedded Medical Device Control
For years, embedded controllers have been in many types of machines, governing the quality and precision of their function. In Healthcare, embedded smart cards ensure the best and safest delivery of care in devices such as dialysis machines, blood analyzers and laser eye surgery equipment.

Enterprise and Network Security
Microsoft Windows, Sun Microsystems (a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation) and all new versions of Linux have built-in software hooks to deploy smart cards as a replacement for user name and passwords. Microsoft has built a complete credential platform around the Scard dll and Crypto Service Provider (CSP). With enterprises realizing that Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-enhanced security is what is needed for widely deployed employees, a smart card badge is the new standard. Business-to-business Intranets and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are enhanced by the use of smart cards. Users can be authenticated and authorized to have access to specific information based on preset privileges. Additional applications range from secure email to electronic commerce.