Saratoga Hospital Selects DigitalPersona to Securely Control Access to Patient Health Information

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Feb. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- DigitalPersona, Inc., a global provider of authentication and access management solutions, today announced Saratoga Hospital has deployed DigitalPersona® Pro software and U.are.U® Fingerprint Readers to secure access to protected health information (PHI) and comply with industry regulations. Through the combined use of DigitalPersona Pro software with fingerprint biometrics, Saratoga Hospital is able to more accurately track and secure access to patient records across applications, enabling the hospital to meet the authentication requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

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Saratoga Hospital operates five remote care facilities with 171 hospital beds in Saratoga Springs, NY. Due to cumbersome login and logoff processes, the hospital found it difficult to accurately track access to PHI by its more than 1700 doctors, nurses and staff under their old username and password authentication infrastructure.  They sought a solution that removed the guesswork of managing authentication across many different backend systems and simplified compliance. After evaluating numerous authentication solutions, Saratoga Hospital chose DigitalPersona Pro with fingerprint biometrics. The authentication and access control solution was deployed in June of 2009 and is now being extended to Hewlett-Packard thin clients using Citrix® XenApp™ to access hospital applications. The DigitalPersona solution allows hospital staff to access applications and see only patient records to which they are authorized, from any terminal across Saratoga Hospital's facilities. Fingerprint biometrics enable Saratoga Hospital to meet the HIPAA advanced authentication requirements.

"Typically in the healthcare world, increased convenience (which doctors and nurses insist upon) results in a decrease in security," said Gary Moon, CISSP, information systems security analyst at Saratoga Hospital. "With DigitalPersona Pro, we have simplified the login process for our users, while simultaneously increasing the security of patient health information. This ultimately allows our personnel to deliver a better patient experience at the point of care and ensures we maintain patients' trust by safeguarding their health information."

DigitalPersona Pro and U.are.U Fingerprint Readers easily integrate into an organization's existing infrastructure, including Microsoft® Active Directory® or Citrix virtualized desktop deployments. Supporting a wide-range of authentication methods, including biometrics, proximity cards, passwords, PINs and even Bluetooth phones, DigitalPersona Pro enables effortless user authentication from computer logon to applications, allowing users to spend less time remembering and entering passwords, and more time with patients. When deployed with fingerprint biometrics for user authentication, DigitalPersona Pro ties an individual person to each transaction, simplifying the reporting and auditing requirements for regulations such as HIPAA and the HITECH Act.

"It is more important than ever for hospitals, clinics and insurance providers to control access to sensitive data in ways that are secure yet don't hinder productivity," said Jim Fulton, vice president at DigitalPersona. "DigitalPersona Pro gives healthcare organizations the flexibility to tailor their use of advanced authentication to fit their established business processes, instead of the other way around."

DigitalPersona Healthcare Solutions on Display at HIMSS
DigitalPersona will showcase their healthcare solutions at the HIMSS12 Annual Conference and Exhibition, February 21 – 23, 2012, in Las Vegas. DigitalPersona will be located at booth number 3860 on the Upper Level of the Sands Expo Center. Media or analysts interested in one-on-one meetings and product demonstrations should contact Derek James at (408) 727-0351 or [email protected].

About DigitalPersona
DigitalPersona, Inc. is a global provider of strong authentication and access management solutions that close the gap between people and security for enterprises, government agencies and commercial embedded-solution developers. DigitalPersona's authentication and access management software is shipped by computer manufacturers on millions of notebooks and desktop computers per year; its cloud- and Active Directory-managed solutions multi-factor/strong authentication, single sign-on (SSO) password management and emergency access recovery simplify compliance and cut IT costs. The company's fingerprint biometrics technology helps organizations prevent fraud and increase accountability; it is incorporated into multiple national voting systems, almost all brands of biometrically-enabled point-of-sale (POS) stations, as well as many commercial applications in the retail, healthcare, and financial industries. For more information contact DigitalPersona, Inc. at: +1 650.474.4000, or visit www.digitalpersona.com.

© 2012 DigitalPersona, Inc. All rights reserved. DigitalPersona® and U.are.U® are trademarks of DigitalPersona, Inc. registered in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Active Directory are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.Citrix and XenApps are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.This information should not be relied upon as legal advice.  DigitalPersona specifically disclaims all warranties of any kind, express or implied.  Users must take full responsibility for their application of any products or compliance with any legal requirements.

Media Contact:
Derek James
McGrath/Power Public Relations
408-727-0351
[email protected]

SOURCE DigitalPersona, Inc.