The National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s Office of the Chief Privacy Officer, working with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, has launched a Privacy & Security Mobile Device project.

According to an ONC press release, the goal of the project is to develop “an effective and practical way to bring awareness and understanding to those in the clinical sector to help them better secure and protect health information while using mobile devices (e.g., laptops, tablets and smartphones).” Building on existing HIPAA guidelines, it would identify privacy and security good practices for mobile devices that can be disseminated to healthcare providers and others in the field.

HHS officials plan to convene a public roundtable this spring.

HHS officials have been monitoring the fast-growing mHealth environment for the past five years, including playing an active role in the annual mHealth Summit in Washington D.C. As part of its mHealth Initiative, the department launched the Text4Health Task Force to develop text messaging and mobile health programs and identify projects that would deliver health information and resources to people through mobile phones.

The task force has been at the forefront of several mHealth projects, including text4baby; the SmokeFreeTXT program (launched by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health); the Apps Against Abuse developer’s challenge (a partnership between HHS and the White House); and the mHealth Community of Practice. In addition, the HHS’ Office of Minority Health has launched a project with the American Association of Diabetes Educators, AT&T and Baylor University to study the use of secure video streaming on smartphones to push out directed diabetes self-management education courses.