DOD deal secures medical data

The Defense Department has awarded about $70 million in contracts for the infrastructure to ensure the privacy and security of patient records in the Military Health System.

Integic Corp., an e-business solutions provider to government, won a six-year contract worth more than $60 million in the Composite Health Care System II, DOD announced Tuesday.

Integic will build a secure infrastructure for CHCS II by integrating SnareWorks security software

from Vasco Data Security Inc. into DOD's public-key infrastructure, said Larry Albert, senior vice

president and health care practice leader at Integic.

Vasco won a $7.3 million contract for its part of the work.

When fully deployed, CHCS II will enable a physician, nurse or other

medical provider to obtain a patient's complete medical record at any of

the 105 worldwide points of service in the Military Health System.

The security features being built in by Integic and Vasco also comply

with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which

mandates the protection of electronic medical records, Albert said.

"We've completed and passed the design, test and evaluation stage and

are moving into the operational, test and evaluation phase at three sites,"

Albert said. "This will let users work with it, and we can collect feedback"

in preparation for a worldwide launch in early 2001.

According to Jonathan Chinitz, vice president and general manager at

Vasco, SnareWorks helps ensure the privacy and security of patient records

through:

* Encryption on every database.

* Digital signature technology.

* Single sign on throughout the enterprise.

* The ability to assign access controls at many levels.

"We want to brand this entire solution as HIPAA-certified, where the

spillover into the commercial space is tremendous," Chinitz said. "This

project has a life of its own and will be funded, and there's tremendous

opportunity as we move forward into the HIPPA age."

In addition to many customers within DOD, Chantilly, Va.-Integic also

serves the Federal Aviation Administration.

Vasco, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., counts DOD and NASA as federal

customers and is hoping its partnership with Integic will expand its customer

base in both the public and private sectors, Chinitz said.