Enter Your Email Address to Receive a
Copy of MedicExhange Member Demograhpics

In a partnership with EXTENSION, Inc., TrustBearer applied security software principles and techniques to help create the EXTENSION HealthID product.

TrustBearer Labs, an information security software company based in Fort Wayne, IN and Washington, D.C., partnered with EXTENSION, Inc. to develop the EXTENSION HealthID patient smart card product. HealthID takes data from various electronic medical systems and securely stores important demographic and clinical data on patient smart cards. As noted in the American Hospital Association's press release describing the exclusive endorsement of HealthID,

"Hospitals are able to quickly find and use patient's information within an individual facility or across their system or network. The benefits of the smart card include providing much improved patient experiences and streamlined administrative costs."

TrustBearer has been developing software applications that leverage the security features of smart cards for over 5 years. Historically, the company has focused on the U.S. Federal Government smart card market. The U.S. Government has paved the way for other industries to adopt smart cards by creating accepted standards including the Common Access Card (CAC) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) identification standards. Development of these standards, together with government mandates requiring Federal agencies to replace their employee badges with smart cards, have fostered a smart card market for both hardware and software vendors.

TrustBearer applied security software principles and techniques to help create the EXTENSION HealthID product, an expertise gained from their work with U.S. Government smart cards. The EXTENSION® Engine aggregates patient data from a variety of electronic medical systems. Critical patient data, such as name, date of birth, medical record number, insurance details, allergies, immunizations, and medications are then securely written to a patient smart card using HealthID.

The only end-user requirements for use of EXTENSION® HealthID are a web browser and a smart card reader. The TrustBearer Live smart card middleware handles communication with patient cards. It is delivered as a web browser plug-in, which is updated transparently and without user interaction. Because the system is completely web-based, HealthID can be deployed through a wide variety of systems such as self-service kiosks.

TrustBearer plans to offer web applications that will allow patients to access services using their HealthID card at a home computer. Beyond services offered by health providers, patients may eventually sync health information on their card with online Personal Health Record (PHR) services such as Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault.

About TrustBearer

TrustBearer is a security-focused software company selling products and services to customers in government and health care markets. Located in Fort Wayne, IN and Washington, DC, TrustBearer develops and deploys software solutions that leverage CAC and PIV smart cards, as well as other PKI and biometric credentials.

Source: TrustBearer

You can discuss more about Healthcare IT and related topics in our Healthcare Informatics Group.