Authentify Furthers Voice Biometrics in Healthcare
Voice biometrics provider Authentify has partnered LifeMedID, a patient identification company. With the implementation of Authetify’s voice biometrics and technology from LifeMedID, healthcare providers will be able to ensure the correct identities of their patients.
After checking in with a receptionist, whether at a physician’s office, hospital, or other healthcare provider setting, the patient can download a voice recognition application from Authentify to his smartphone. "By using a cell phone and using it in secure fashion, [healthcare providers] can ensure that they are always accessing the exact same medical record," explains Peter Tapling, CEO of Authentify. "You take your phone, which is essentially your LifeMed ID device, and you interact with the LiveMed ID system."
LifeMed ID then returns a QR code unique to the patient. The QR code is not static, but is generated on the spot. Tapling explains that the QR code offers an additional layer of security. "Any time you're doing authentication, if you break it down, one function is which user you're claiming to be. The second function is to prove that you are that user. The QR code is the identification piece of equation, [covering] who are you. The voice biometrics piece is are you really that person."
Additionally, the solution enables a faster and seamless workflow process for the provider. Once a person proves that he is the actual patient, all medical and insurance information that is stored in an electronic medical record (EMR) can be instantly accessed.
Healthcare, he adds, "is certainly heading in the direction of automating more as opposed to less. It's moving in the direction of cooperating more in how information is exchanged."
Another benefit of the solution is that providers can share medical information with one another and with patients. For example, a laboratory can report test findings to a general practitioner, who can in turn share it with a specialist. The patient can also access the information.
"Early efforts at medical records were very siloed," Tapling says. "They didn't have a way to exchange information."
And with rampant healthcare fraud today, the solution can offer greater peace of mind. "As you begin to add more checks and balances in the [healthcare] system, fraud will get increasingly more difficult. Today, what's to stop a bad guy from walking into a doctor's office with my name, my Social Security number, birth date, address, and ask for services?" Tapling points out.
"One of the reasons that healthcare fraud is so easy today is because it's so paper-based," Tapling says. "As soon as you have the ability for information to flow electronically, you have an obligation to make sure that you're moving that data with proper authorization, which means you're going to have to identify who owns the data, who can control it, and create access control mechanisms that the right people are looking at the right data for the right purposes."
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