 |
The innovative program encrypts “identifiers” (such as a social security number) on a clinical trial patient’s electronic medical record. The “key” or code to the encryption system, and therefore access to the patient’s medical record, is then stored in a separate database on another computer.
“HIPAA regulations are a wake-up call for clinical researchers who now need to modernize their approach to managing private clinical information,” said Eran Bellin, MD, a medical researcher who is also the head of Montefiore Medical Center’s HIPAA security subcommittee. HIPAA specifically requires hospitals to “implement a mechanism to encrypt and decrypt electronic protected health information.” HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations take effect April 14, 2003.Dr. Bellin, who could find no existing computer software to meet both privacy rules under HIPAA and his own research needs, built one.
“The software is significant for Montefiore, because, as the university hospital and academic medical center for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, we conduct trials involving hundreds of patients and tens of millions of dollars annually,” said Dr. Bellin. Bellin said he hopes that the software will become a national model for other medical centers. The software is believed to be the first of its kind.Patient privacy can be further protected, said Dr. Bellin, if the encryption key becomes the property of a research institution’s institutional review board (IRB) – generally composed of ethicists, researchers and community members, who review and monitor clinical research and whose job it is to guard against access to patient records.
Researchers have historically been permitted to review patients’ medical records and then physically lock up the information in a drawer, file or within a computer database. When research findings are released, the data is aggregated, so no individual is identified. HIPAA restricts the ways in which researchers may use or disclose “protected health information” in a patient’s medical record and this requires more modern methods to access and use the patient information.The new software is called FieldEncrypt. Additional information on the software is available at http://fieldencrypt.devguru.com.
Montefiore Medical Center, The University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is an internationally recognized leader in patient care, education, research and community services. Montefiore provides treatment programs for patients with all major illnesses and has distinguished centers of excellence in heart care, cancer care, children’s health, women’s health and surgery.
For the News Media
Contact our public relations staff.
Our Public Relations team is informed, connected and responsive. We are at your service, on call 24/7, and we will work hard to help you in any way we can – whether by tracking down sources for your stories or arranging video shoots, or getting an expert to help you in your background research.
Call us at 718.920.4011, or click here to view our Office of Public Relations contacts.
Chairman, Medical Oncology
Every day there are breakthroughs in our understanding of cancer. We can provide insights on research, clinical trials and new treatments for all cancers. And we can tell you how yoga can help fight cancer, too.
