Are we veering closer to the age of digital healthcare? Digital security firm Gemalto is on the right track.
Gemalto has just commercially launched its Sealys e-health terminal, geared towards the German market.
The product has been approved by Gematik, which means that it meets the stringent security requirements of Germany’s e-healthcare system.
Drawing on the company’s previous GCR 550 health-card reader, the Sealys German Healthcare reader integrates the most up-to-date technological advances required by German health professionals, with access to the patient’s electronic medical file and emergency data such as blood group, allergies and ongoing treatment records.
Doctors will have the facility to issue electronic prescriptions to enable data exchange with pharmacists, helping to reduce fraud, while also eliminating paperwork.
The Sealys reader can be connected for online services via Ethernet and offers USB options such as biometric identification and contactless operation, allowing doctors to sign e-prescriptions using their fingerprint, for instance.
A leading player in digital security globally, Gemalto had annual revenues of €1.68bn in 2008.
It has been recently awarded a contract to supply and personalise 35 million new e-health cards (eGK) for German citizens.
Since the mid-Nineties, Gemalto has been partnering with health insurance companies in Germany, with its creation of health cards. Currently, sensitive data of more than 30 million patients is protected with personalised Gemalto smart cards.
In early April, Gemalto also become a vendor partner of the SAFE-BioPharma Association, a non-profit organisation that created and manages the SAFE-BioPharma digital identity and signature standard for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
In an effort to achieve their common goal of a fully electronic business environment by 2012, Gemalto is joining with biopharmaceutical and healthcare industry leaders.
For further information, visit www.gemalto.com
By Carmel Doyle
