BizTechReports, an independent research and reporting agency, found 74% of HIT decision makers feel that consumer-grade tablets present challenges for entering data into healthcare applications. Furthermore 58% of survey respondents agree that enterprise applications, like EHR management, are not designed for consumer-grade devices, like the iPad.

Results from the study have been published in the white paper “Diagnosis Danger: Governance & Security Issues Cause IT Concerns About iPad in Healthcare Setting*.” The report focuses on media tablets – specifically the iPad’s adoption in healthcare, and is based on a national survey of healthcare IT executives.

Healthcare IT reporter and blogger, Anne Zieger recently shared concerns about the iPad’s security vulnerabilities, in a recent post entitled, “Apple Security Issues Linger, Raising iPad, iPhone Concerns For Hospitals.” For example the mobile Safari browser used on most iPads, is infamous for security flaws. Zieger references a report from NSS Labs that found while Explorer 9 blocked 100% of malicious URLs, with Application-based filtering enabled, Safari 5 blocked just 13%.

According to the BizTechReports white paper, reliability and durability proved to be a major point of concern for HIT decision makers as well. 94% of participants feel that device durability and “ruggedness” are important requirements in hospital and clinical settings. After all, because of the highly mobile and occasionally chaotic nature of healthcare, the likelihood of a mobile device falling, being dropped or spilled upon is high. Consumer grade technologies are simply not designed to operate reliably in such a demanding setting.

The full white paper is now available for a free download on the Panasonic website.

Are you interested in using this new generation of tablets in healthcare? If so, let us know where you see the opportunities and obstacles.

* Diagnosis Danger: Governance & Security Issues Cause IT Concerns About iPad in Healthcare Setting was commissioned by Panasonic

The event features an impressive selection of industry influencers discussing issues of great importance to technology professionals in the healthcare market.  Please stop by the site to review the materials. While you are there, you can check out my blog and podcast, “Panasonic Talks Mobile Technology.”

The complexities of rolling out a new mobile technology solution or the challenges of managing security concerns associated with a mobile workforce can only be understood by a select group of people.  Although IT managers tend to have support teams, when everyone is facing the same problem, it’s hard to find a fresh perspective. Most seasoned IT professionals know the benefit of taking a step outside the box and talking to others in their field.

Facing the challenges associated with managing mobile technology deployments can be simplified through interacting with peers at smaller, more focused industry events. These events typically host educational panels, workshops, case study reviews and perhaps most importantly, the opportunity to converse with peers and discuss industry trends.

Panasonic values the educational opportunities offered by these types of peer-focused events. We have created an environment for customers and partners to interact with each other and share best practices through programs like the Panasonic Healthcare Symposium and the Panasonic Thought Leadership Forum. Both conferences are great opportunities to understand how similar organizations approach mobile technology challenges.

Our Healthcare Symposium runs from September 11th – September 13th; this year’s event takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina. Conference attendees are typically healthcare IT decision makers from major healthcare systems, large hospitals, home health agencies, blood centers, long tern healthcare centers, and Veterans Affairs facilities. Topics slated for the 2011 Healthcare Symposium include key issues affecting healthcare technology implementation, visualization solutions for enhanced patient care, best practices and technology trends.

If you’d like to attend the Healthcare Symposium, or learn more about the event, click here.

We also host the Thought Leadership Forum, a similar conference for the enterprise. Industries represented include utilities, petrochemical, oil & gas, telecommunications, broadband cable, field service, insurance, transportation, construction, beverage manufacturers, and supply chain logistics.

Click here, for details on Panasonic’s Thought Leadership Forum, from October 4^th – 7^th also taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Variety Care had previously been using commercial grade tablets that were not specifically designed for the demands of a healthcare environment; these tablets experienced breaks and failures which resulted in clinician downtime. Manager of Information Systems, Carl Flippin wanted to enhance the facility’s workflow with mobile devices that were durable, portable, lightweight, reliable and had wireless capabilities.

Flippin met with DataSource Mobility, a value added IT reseller with an expertise is mobile technology, to discuss the criteria for Variety Care’s next mobile computing solution. After research and evaluation, the Panasonic Toughbook T8 computers proved to be the ultimate solution.

Since deployment, Variety Care’s workflow has become more efficient. Doctors now have the flexibility to complete charting with a secure VPN when they leave the office.

“Because the Toughbook computers are durable and have great wireless connectivity, the doctors can seamlessly and efficiently move through patient charts, see patients quickly and transmit data immediately. It helps us better serve more patients and our community,” said Flippin.

Click here to download the full Variety Care Community Health Center story from the DataSource Mobility website.

To learn more about the value of Panasonic Toughbook mobile computers in healthcare, visit the Panasonic website.

The hot-swap capability means that a device includes two high-capacity battery packs, not merely a main battery and a small “bridge” battery. This allows users to change a battery without having to turn the power off or reboot the system, extending running time. Plus, it removes the burden of having to swap your main battery in a very short time, which is not always practical. Using a battery charger, you can keep spares fully charged and take them with you. In situations where you can’t run on AC power or recharge batteries, this reserve power can make a significant difference.

In today’s business landscape, the mobile professional category represents a new opportunity and challenge. According to the Yankee Group, mobile professionals represent 46% of all mobile workers and that percentage will continue to grow. The analyst firm’s “Mobile Outlook 2011,” found that roughly one-third of all employees in U.S. businesses can be considered mobile, spending at least 20% of their time away from the primary office or workspace. As a result, it is common for these users to sacrifice either weight or battery life in order to use a mobile computer for extended periods of time.

Standard batteries – in many cases – are light in weight but often deliver poor life. As a result, mobile professionals are forced to use long-life batteries to meet their needs for extended uptime. These extended-life batteries, which I refer to as Goiter batteries, impact the device’s weight and also its footprint – making that small and light laptop larger and heavier. And, because they extend beyond the laptop’s case, these larger batteries offer an increased opportunity for failure.

To resolve this conflict, Panasonic has applied its hot-swappable twin battery design to the business-rugged Toughbook C1 convertible tablet to enable extended battery life and light weight for mobile professionals. With two batteries, the Toughbook C1 can run for about 10 hours and only weighs 3.7 pounds. However, if the extra battery life is not needed, the C1 ships with a dummy pack and can run for five hours on a single battery, which decreases the weight to a phenomenal 3.2 pounds.

With traditional notebooks, replacing a battery requires the PC to be powered down and rebooted. This downtime can be detrimental for many mobile professionals, such as pharmaceutical sales representatives who frequently spend long hours waiting to present the latest drugs and equipment to doctors. This window of opportunity is often a matter of minutes; therefore, it’s essential to have the computer running at all times.

For nurses or other mobile workers that select a device from a number of units on a charging rack, Panasonic has designed the C1 to clearly indicate up to four charge levels at the front edge of the case. At a quick glance, you can tell how much power each battery has. Without this feature, machines would be selected at random. If a device with a low charge was chosen, the battery could die during offsite duties – resulting in significant downtime and lost productivity.  Of course, the ability to swap in a charged spare could help mitigate that.

When evaluating mobile devices, we recommend closely examining battery life. Devices with standard batteries that do not offer significant life should not even be considered.  In today’s mobile world, a laptop should be able to achieve six to eight hours of life without having to use an extended-life battery. In addition, notebooks that offer twin hot-swappable batteries allow users to truly take advantage of mobility. More information on Panasonic’s hot-swappable battery technology can be found here.

In 2009, a new virulent form of influenza swept the world, reaching Japan in the spring, and prompting the rapid formulation of emergency measures by the government. At Tokai Municipal Hospital, a means of coping with the anticipated pandemic was set up by creating the super-flu Outpatients Clinic. The Toughbook H1 Health Mobile Clinical Assistant was introduced in the main hospital as part of integrated measures to fight a possible super-flu pandemic and prevent any outbreak of influenza from spreading. The H1 was selected, in part, because it was designed to be sanitized.

“Because it can be so easily disinfected, we chose the H1 as the best terminal for use when dealing with super-flu outpatients,” said Mr. Atsuhito Yamada, Radiological Technologist and Health Information Technologist Medical Professions Division, Head of IT Promotion Group Medical Information Section. “The body doesn’t have any projections or recesses; you can wipe it with alcohol.”

Beyond ease of sanitization, the Toughbook H1 offered benefits that made it an ideal fit for Tokai Municipal. The hospital found that the device’s durability, coupled with excellent connectivity and integrated features like a camera and barcode scanner, resulted in increased productivity for its clinical staff.

Click here for the full Tokai Municipal Hospital case study.  Additional information regarding Toughbook computers in healthcare can be found here.

HIPAA legislation has been in place for some time now, however, recent developments from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 are forcing many in the healthcare industry to re-evaluate their compliance to HIPAA regulations. Included in this legislation was the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH Act. Its major goal is to advance the use of health information technology (HIT).  A key provision of the HITECH is the move to digital health records – i.e. Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Electronic Medical Records (EMR). These changes require new ways of doing business and create new challenges for protecting the privacy and security of digital information.

Another element of HIPAA legislation is the applicability to both large and small providers. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has stipulated that any loss of unprotected personal health information (PHI) must be reported. Plus if the number of lost records is above 500 individuals, then it must be publically reported. An annual study conducted by the Ponemon Institute found the average compromised record results in $144—$204 of indirect costs and $60 of direct costs. As a result, information systems being converted to digital format should review HIPAA regulations and determine four things:
1) Where will PHI be stored and accessed?
2) How will the information be protected when it is either stored or exchanged?
3) Who has authorized access to the information?
4) How will the paper records be handled (HIPAA has regulations concerning the disposal of PHI)?

The proliferation of mobile devices and storage options has tremendously compounded the problem of tracking the location of electronic personal health information (ePHI).  A recent study by the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) analyzed 108 reported breaches affecting over 4 million individuals and health records. The analysis found that 77%, or over 3 million records, were due to loss or theft of laptops or removable media. Add this to the diverse physical locations where information can be stored (e.g. teleworker) and data security becomes a significant challenge to any IT department.

The HITECH act set clear guidelines regarding the protection that must be afforded to stored data. HITECH specifies that if government recommendations for data encryption (NIST SP800-111) are met, then the ePHI has been “rendered unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals”. As such, the risk to the individuals is low and a reportable breach has not occurred.

Failure to protect ePHI will result in fines and the requirement to notify and provide ID theft protection for all impacted individuals. As mentioned earlier, if the number of unprotected lost records exceeds 500, then public media must be notified of the breach. Not only does this incur a lot of expense, but requires a significantly amount of effort. The Ponemon study found that the average time the 65 surveyed organizations IT departments took to fully resolve a single security breach was 161 days.

With these types of challenges, what solutions are available to combat the threats? One of the simplest solutions is to stop the usage of certain devices, e.g USB Flash drives or other removable media. Software solutions exists, called Data Leakage Prevention (DLP), which prevent information from being transferred to removable storage. Locking the data to a single physical location can hamper a user’s workflow so much that the impact to productivity may not justify the approach. It can also lead to the creation of “special users” that are allowed to use removable mobile devices which ultimately defeats the intent.

A second approach is to remove the data from the endpoint device. This can be done by using a virtualized infrastructure approach. In this type of solution the application is executed on a central server and the endpoint simply provides a user interface. These solutions are ideal if the application can be run in a virtualized environment and the endpoint client does not leave any data remnants on the device. Unfortunately, in some cases only a small number of applications can be run in a virtualization mode, which is not the ideal solution for many healthcare facilities. A second challenge for this type of solution is the need for a network connection to the server, which may be difficult in some usage scenarios.

Finally there is endpoint encryption. As mentioned earlier, NIST SP800-111 specifies the configurations to be used. For example if the endpoint is a laptop that will be taken off premise, then full disk encryption with pre-boot authentication is recommended. This will ensure that all the data on the disk is protected. If this is coupled with a central policy and logging server, then a consistent security model can easily be established. Plus by having a centralized logging capability, a report can be generated on any lost or stolen device. The report will show the protection status on the device prior to its loss. This will meet the HITECH requirements for secured ePHI.

Once the data has been protected it must be integrated into an authentication solution. In many organizations this will translate into a centrally managed domain. Any protection solution, virtual or client will need to integrate into this existing infrastructure. Furthermore, in many cases the ePHI will need to be shared, one of the drivers behind digitization. When looking at any solution it is important to ensure that there is the capability to limit access to a preselected group. If not, this can lead to either sharing unprotected information or password sharing. Neither is an acceptable outcome.

One final point regarding implementation challenges. Although not overly covered in HITECH, HIPAA does have some clear mandates regarding the storage and disposal of paper records. So as information is converted from paper records to EHR/EMR, care must be taken regarding the disposal of the paper records.

Due to the ARRA legislation, Healthcare IT organizations are in a unique and difficult position. On one side there are considerable incentives to move to digital information systems. On the other, there are now considerable risks if the information is exposed. As healthcare organizations move forward to take advantage of the financial incentives that HITECH provides, these efforts must include a review of current information protection measures that are in place. The financial gains that are made from deploying an EHR/EMR system could easily be cancelled out by a single data breach.

How does Mobile Armor address these challenges?

Mobile Armor provides a wide range of data protection and encryption solutions for securing electronic and mobile data. The Mobile Armor Data Protection Suite™ protects information and enforces policies throughout an organization. With pre-boot authentication, the protection extends beyond the security environment and protects lost or stolen devices. The Mobile Armor solution is FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certified and, properly implemented, exceeds HHS guidelines. The Data Protection Suite simplifies the protection of healthcare data by providing:

• FIPS certified AES 256-bit full disk encryption and file-level encryption options.
• Data encryption for laptops, desktops, notebooks, toughbooks, netbooks, and all types of removable storage devices including external hard drives, CD/DVD and USB flash drives.
• Centralized policy administration and management to enforce the encryption of sensitive information to meet HITECH Act safe harbor requirements.
• Pre-boot authentication that enforces policy-driven access control that prevents unauthorized users from logging onto a device.
• Reporting and auditing to show and verify the current status of encryption deployment enterprise wide or by department, employee and/or serialized device.
• A “remote kill switch” that, should a device that contains health information be lost or stolen, permits the customer to remotely wipe the crypto keys, rendering the data on the device completely inaccessible.
• Multiple forms of authentication including fixed passwords, ColorCode, PIN, CAC, and Active Directory domain password.
• Individual, group and enterprise authentication for removable storage media.
• Robust port and device control that restricts various forms of removable media as well as restricts who uses what devices on the network.
• Tamper proof and security measures that detect and protect stolen devices.

The Mobile Armor Data Protection Suite has been designed for use by the most stringent/security conscious organizations such as the United States military for information protection due to its FIPS 140-2 Level 2/3 validation, ISO/IEC 15408 and other elite security certifications, providing even greater levels of mobile data information protection than required in the HITECH Act. And, because of the breadth of device protection (laptops, desktops, flash drives, CD/DVD), ease of use and deployment of the Data Protection Suite, an organization of any size is able to quickly benefit from the superior levels of data protection offered in the Mobile Armor solution.

For more information on Mobile Armor go to: http://www.mobilearmor.com/

The transition to the Toughbook MCAs was easy and resulted in benefits for both the hospital and its patients. Currently, there are 60 Toughbook H1 Health devices in use and the staff has reported excellent battery life, portability and durability. Of course, the most important advantage to implementing this mobile computing solution has been the ability to increase quality of patient care and truly build a team among the clinical staff hospital-wide.

The medical staff of Matsushita Memorial also employs Toughbook H1 Health’s as a tool to help improve communication between nurses and patients. Nurses can easily share information, which might otherwise be difficult to convey, by displaying interactive charts and graphics on the screen of the MCA.

Regarding enhanced patient-to-nurse communication, Fumiyo Sakai, Assistant Director of Matsushita Memorial Hospital said, “Team-oriented medical care is when information and issues pertaining to nurse-care planning are shared among patients and nurses. It is where patients are convinced of the right approach because their wishes and desires have been considered. In this regard, I think the ability of the H1 to allow the patient to directly view information on the screen side-by-side with the nurse is its great merit.”

 A full case study is available, here.

The medical facility found that the Toughbook H1 Health easily integrated with its EMR software system and offered the durability, integrated features, usability and excellent warranty needed to maximize return on investment. As a result of the implementation, Bates County Memorial Hospital has significantly streamlined clinical workflow.

The mobile device’s lightweight and ergonomic design is beneficial for the staff while completing daily clinical tasks such as capturing vital signs, entering patient information, reviewing medical records, administering medication, capturing patient authorizations and discharging patients. To date, Bates has deployed more than 45 Toughbook H1 Health MCAs throughout its facility.

View the full Bates County Memorial Hospital Toughbook H1 Health case study here.