Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced that Bulgaria has started deploying its smart cards to secure access to personal health records for the country’s military personnel and their family.
Gemalto has vast experience in providing solutions for eHealth, and has proved itself as a strong and reliable partner in Slovenia, Germany, France, Finland, the UK, Gabon, Algeria, Mexico, etc.
In Bulgaria, Gemalto delivered double-slot readers and smart cards with the associated middleware to KIM-2000, a local company specialized in eHealth projects. KIM-2000 acts as prime contractor for the electronic health record system commissioned by the Military Medical Academy*. This innovative system optimizes medical treatments, simplifies and modernizes procedures and increases security for accessing health information.
The Gemalto card is compliant with the Identification Authentication Signature (IAS) European standard to ensure the highest level of security for accessing personal electronic health records. The patient and the healthcare professional simultaneously insert their own card into the double-entry Gemalto reader and type in their PIN code to enable viewing or modifying of the medical file, which is stored on a highly secure IT infrastructure. The patient can also view their personal data online, using the Gemalto reader and card to authenticate themselves.
The personal electronic health record is a complete electronic archive of the patient’s medical history. It stores all existing medical documentation, including laboratory tests and results, X-ray pictures, all visual tests, electronic prescriptions, etc. It also contains the patient’s blood group, allergies and genetic predisposition to diseases, health check ups, surgical interventions and all useful medical information. The personal electronic health record enables healthcare professionals to immediately access a patient’s medical data and therefore, make more accurate decisions, especially in emergency situations, for which there is a special section in the electronic health record, containing the most important relevant information.
“For securing our system, we needed a smart card that meets the stringent requirements of international and European standards,” commented Kalcho Hinov, Chairman of the Board, KIM-2000. “Gemalto’s European Standard-compliant IAS solution ensures trust and confidence and enables smoother, more efficient interaction between patients and healthcare professionals.”
“The implementation of an electronic health record system is a highly innovative project and Gemalto is proud to contribute to this venture alongside KIM-2000,” added Ari Bouzbib, Senior Vice President Identity and Government Programs at Gemalto. “Through this initiative, Gemalto’s digital security technology proves to be a key enabler to next-generation eHealth programs. These are intended to deliver optimized treatment for each patient with utmost security, while protecting the privacy of personal data.”

The Smart Card Alliance Health care Council will focus on educating the industry on the need for a solid, secure identity management infrastructure, its newly elected officers said.

“This has been an important year for the health care industry, with the federal government ready to invest over $19 billion in health care information technology as a result of the ARRA HITECH Act, and interest growing around the use of electronic medical records,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “The Health care Council has made a lot of progress this year, raising awareness of the need for a strong identity management infrastructure that is a necessary foundation for using electronic medical records, and introducing smart cards as a secure technology for health care applications.”

The officers and steering committee that will lead the Council for the upcoming year are:

Chair: Paul Contino, Mount Sinai Medical Center·
Vice chair: Michael Magrath, CSCIP, Gemalto
Secretary: Dale Grogan, CSCIP, LifeMed / SMART Association
Ola Martins, Oberthur Technologies
Matthew Neuman, Giesecke & Devrient
This past year, the Health care Council partnered with the Secure ID Coalition on the health care IT briefing in Washington, DC, “Protecting Your Health Information: Raising Public Awareness of the Privacy and Security Challenges of Health care Information Management.”

The council continued educational efforts by collaborating with the Smart Card Alliance Identity Council on two papers addressing health care identity management, “Health care Identity Management: The Foundation for a Secure and Trusted National Health Information Network,” and “Effective Health care Identity Management: A Necessary First Step for Improving U.S. Health care Information Systems,” and hosting the webinar, “Identity Management in Health care.”

The Smart Card Alliance Health care Council is currently developing a position paper on data breaches and identity theft.