E-prescribing rule could open the door for biometrics
20 December, 2010
category: Biometrics, Health
Federal and state rules are starting to require more security for physicians that use electronic prescribing technology. The DEA wants prescribers to add a layer of authentication and Ohio has also mandated the additional factor.
This could be an opportunity for biometrics in the health care market.
“You can image doctors using biometrics to extract drugs from a medical dispensing station for example,” says Phil Scarfo, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Lumidigm. “Once people are enrolled in that particular type of system, a doctor or a nurse, you already know their identity biometrically and they can begin to use their biometric on a shared workstation to log on to maybe an EMR system.”
Starting with e-prescribing it could branch out to other health care systems. “You can begin to start thinking about using a biometric within the broader IT infrastructure of a hospital to deal with a variety of applications that basically make the job of the doctor or nurse simpler, and not just something that gets in their way,” Scarfo continues.