News from Feb 16th 2011
BIO-key International, Inc. (OTCBB:BKYI – News), a leader in finger-based biometric identification solutions, and Lumidigm, Inc., the multispectral imaging biometrics company, have partnered to provide a strong authentication solution for e-prescriptions at Genesis HealthCare System. Today, Genesis HealthCare is utilizing BIO-key’s biometric identification software with Lumidigm fingerprint sensors so staff may quickly, conveniently and securely establish identity when ordering, verifying or administering medications as required by Ohio law.
Genesis HealthCare System, based in Zanesville Ohio, has 200 centers throughout the eastern United States. For years, doctors and pharmacists in Ohio have been required to use two-factor authentication when electronically prescribing controlled substances, and as of June 2010, the DEA has also mandated two-factor authentication for electronically prescribing controlled substances nationwide. Genesis HealthCare is able to meet these requirements using BIO-key’s biometric fingerprint identification software and Lumidigm biometric sensors.
Currently, 2,000 clinicians and staff are using BIO-key fingerprint biometrics leveraging Lumidigm multispectral imaging sensors to establish their identity in Genesis’s Epic software to order, verify or administer medications. In the next phase of this project, Genesis will be implementing fingerprint biometric user logon with Vergence, a single sign-on solution from Sentillion, a Microsoft company. With these solutions in place, Genesis staff members will instantly establish their identity with the simple touch of a finger, even when wearing latex gloves.
This BIO-key identification solution, in conjunction with Lumidigm readers, is integrated with all major electronic medical records (EMR) software suites, including Epic and Allscript’s Enterprise HER, as well as major single sign-on (SSO) providers, including Microsoft’s Sentillion, Evidian, IBM, Oracle, CA and more.
"With BIO-key as our partner, we were able to be up and running from the initial inception in less than five months. A lot of vendors talk about being our partner; BIO-key didn’t talk, they delivered," said Ed Romito, vice president and CIO of Genesis HealthCare. "Additionally, BIO-key’s ability to operate with every major fingerprint reader manufacturer allowed us to evaluate a variety of readers to determine which would work best in our environment. As a result of our testing, we determined that Lumidigm’s Mercury sensor provided us with the best performance, including the ability for our staff working in isolation rooms to establish their identity when wearing latex gloves!"
"Individual physicians frequently sign tens, if not hundreds, of prescriptions daily. With BIO-key fingerprint identification and Lumidigm sensors, this process is more secure, faster and extremely convenient, compared to the other two-factor alternatives," added Mike DePasquale, CEO of BIO-key International. "With BIO-key’s ability to operate on mobile platforms including tablets and smart phones, combined with the capabilities and value that Lumidigm’s multispectral imaging technology brings to our customers, other markets will also be able to benefit from our partnership."
"Because skin dryness is so prevalent in the healthcare industry, due in part to constant hand washing, traditional fingerprint sensors can produce up to a twenty percent failure rate," explains Bill Spence, Lumidigm vice president of transaction systems. "In other situations, when the policy allows it, healthcare workers wearing latex gloves do not want to remove them to use the biometric reader. Lumidigm’s Mercury Series multispectral fingerprint sensors capture fingerprint data beneath the surface of the skin so that dryness or gloves create no problems for reliable reads."
The Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances rule was issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as an amendment to the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, commonly known as the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). According to the rule, the doctor or pharmacist creating the prescription must authenticate with two of the following: "something you know (a knowledge factor), something you have (a hard token stored separately from the computer being accessed), and something you are (biometric information). The hard token, if used, must be a cryptographic device or a one-time-password device that meets Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 Security Level 1." For increased security, less complicated management and ease of doctor/pharmacist use, most healthcare organizations prefer that one of the authentication factors be biometric.
A demonstration of the BIO-key / Lumidigm e-prescribing solution will be featured in Booth #5242 at the HIMSS11 Exhibition on February 21-23 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.
The research firm of Frost & Sullivan recently awarded the New Product Innovation of the Year Award, Fingerprint Biometrics, North America, 2010, to Lumidigm. According to Frost & Sullivan, Lumidigm’s "innovative technology allows Lumidigm fingerprint sensors to provide highly accurate biometric data even in adverse conditions where traditional fingerprint sensors fail."
