As it seeks to increase electronic health data sharing, Verizon will begin in January to issue free medical identity credentials to 2.3 million U.S. physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

The first-of-its kind step will help healthcare professionals meet federal requirements put forth in the HITECH Act that call for the use of strong identity credentials when accessing and sharing patient information electronically beginning in mid-2011.

With these strong identity credentials, U.S. providers will be able to receive digital health information via the Verizon Medical Data Exchange, using a secure, private inbox accessed from a new Web-based physician portal, the Healthcare Provider Portal. These multi-factored credentials will be designed to meet the Level 3 authentication requirements created by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency that works with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards.  

In addition, these credentials will be able to be used to universally access healthcare IT applications and platforms, such as electronic medical records, e-prescribing services and health information exchanges, including the Verizon Health Information Exchange, which serves as a central repository for patient information and upon request pulls a patient's history from disparate sources.

Currently, there is no universal means of issuing multi-factored credentials to U.S. healthcare professionals for use in accessing any healthcare system, database or application.

"For years, the U.S. has been talking about the concept of digitally sharing health information and we are now on the cusp of making this a reality," said Peter Tippett, vice president, innovation and technology at Verizon Business. "Verizon is lowering the barriers to compliance and adoption by providing healthcare professionals with a universal means to access virtually any system, anytime, anywhere. We believe this is a significant step forward for health IT."

The Verizon Medical Data Exchange – a fully interoperable and open standards-based platform – enables physicians nationwide to overcome traditional barriers to e-health adoption, including compliance, usability and the investment required to change existing IT systems or purchase new equipment or software. The platform enables a range of providers – from large health systems to rural hospitals to small physician practices – to securely and privately receive and send digital records, such as dictated physician notes, X-rays, medical images and lab results, by linking disparate IT systems and applications.  

The Verizon Medical Data Exchange is designed to meet meaningful-use requirements for health data sharing established under the 2009 HITECH Act. These requirements are a set of interoperability standards, implementation specifications and certification programs intended to certify electronic health record technology to enable clinicians to better coordinate care and reduce administrative costs.

"Verizon's issuance of medical identity credentials to U.S. healthcare professionals promises to help solve many of the information technology challenges faced by providers and facilitate the secure exchange of health information among credentialed healthcare professionals," said Joseph Ternullo, associate director of the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners Healthcare in Boston. "Verizon is creating a clear path toward meeting federal requirements for the use of strong identity credentials."