mHIMSS: Imprivata unveils HIPAA-compliant texting app

By Bernie Monegain

After two months of beta testing, Imprivata is going to market with a texting app.  Ed Ricks, CIO of Beaufort Memorial Hospital, a 200-bed community hospital in South Carolina and one of the beta sites, says Imprivata Cortext lets doctors do what they already do in all other parts of their lives, but weren't allowed to do because of HIPAA rules on protected health information.  "It's secure. It's encrypted. It's protected. It's traceable  -  all the things we need to do from an audit perspective," he says of the free, HIPAA-compliant text messaging solution. "So, for me, it's a perfect fit."  "It's not like the physicians have to use any kind of new workflow," he adds. "They know how to text. They have smartphones now, or many of them do. So the application itself just seems like you're texting with your iPhone. It's really no different from the look and feel.” Ricks figured he'd launch the pilot with about 15 physicians, but now more than 60 physicians and nurses are using Cortext a test run.

http://www.mhimss.org/news/imprivata-unveils-hipaa-compliant-texting-app