InformationWeek Healthcare: Texting App Looks To Improve Hospital Workflow

By Michelle McNickle

New free HIPAA-compliant mobile texting app for doctors differs from competitors because it can archive text messages and is easier to maintain, says maker Imprivata

The explosion of mobile healthcare is spurring a myriad of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant apps that promise to improve communications between physicians and patients. IT security company Imprivata is looking to get a piece of the action with Cortext, which is describes as the first free app that improves hospital efficiency and security by taking workflow into consideration. Belinda Hayes, general manager of the mobile products group at Imprivata, said in an interview with InformationWeek Healthcare that Cortext is the "healthcare industry's first free HIPAA-compliant text messaging application that includes the features to serve the hospital market." "There are more… texting apps out there that target the healthcare market and are secure, but if you think about what features are required to support healthcare ... there are additional features that are needed, like archiving," Hayes said.  Cortex lets doctors save their text exchanges with patients for 60 or 90 days to conduct additional care analysis. "We provide the ability for the team to look back at how effective the communication was by using this archiving, and it also allows the physicians and clinicians to have a record for capturing patient care documentation in the official patient record," said Hayes.

http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/mobile-wireless/texting-app-looks-to-improve-hospital-wo/240008612