The Journal of mHealth Vol 2 issue 5 (Oct) | Page 16
Industry News
HIPAA Compliant Mobile Medical
Camera App and Cloud Storage
Service Launched
Clearwater Clinical has announced the
formation of MODICA, its new mobile
endoscopy and mobile medical photography division. The company also announced
the availability of the MODICA mobile
medical camera phone app and HIPAAcompliant cloud storage service.
Most physicians today use their personal
mobile devices to record photos and
video of patients. These images provide
an excellent visual medical record that
makes collaborating over cases with colleagues, consultants, and residents easier.
However, most default camera and messaging apps offer no security protection.
In fact most phones are designed to automatically move images to non-compliant
storage services and have settings that
could result in the inadvertent sharing of
medical images on social media networks.
“Every doctor I know uses their personal mobile phone to take medical
pictures and videos. We do it because
it is easy and convenient and we carry
around these HD cameras in our pockets every day. We also like how simple
it is to share the photos with colleagues
and residents. It’s a tremendous productivity tool for collaborating with other
doctors, teaching residents, and even
sharing with patients. But before today,
every one of us were doing it in an
insecure, non-compliant way”, Dr. Matthew Bromwich, ENT Surgeon at the
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario
(CHEO) and Co-founder of Clearwater
Clinical. “Now with MODICA, I use my
mobile phone to record, manage, and
share images of my patient cases with
complete confidence that medical data is
kept private and secure.”
The MODICA medical camera app
and cloud solution lets physicians leverage the convenience of using their
smartphone for capturing images while
remaining in compliance with privacy
and regulatory requirements. The solution can be used to record photos and
video and secure them in a segregated,
password-protected camera roll. All
medical images are automatically moved
off the device to a HIPAA-compliant,
encrypted cloud storage service adding
further protection in the event of a lost
or stolen device. For regulatory control
over how images can be used, MODICA
“Within the MODICA division, our goal
is to develop medical software that harnesses the power of mobile technology
for capturing medical photos and videos.
The challenge has been how to do that
securely, and in keeping with regulatory
requirements,” said Michael Weider,
CEO of Clearwater Clinical. “With the
formation of this division, we are able to
align our resources – which includes vast
expertise in both privacy regulations and
software security – to focus on developing solutions that solve real problems,
and removes great risk, for physicians
and medical institutions.” n
enables physicians to capture and store
patient consent directly within the app.
The application also helps physicians
speed up patient care by facilitating
secure in-app sharing of images with
colleagues, consultants, and residents.
Physicians can easily collaborate on
patient cases with the benefit of a visual
record to facilitate discussions.
NHS Trust Cuts Norovirus
Outbreaks by More Than 90%
An NHS Trust has cut outbreaks of the norovirus winter vomiting bug by more than 90% over a five-year period, according to
research published in the journal BMJ Quality and Safety.
simple clinical measures and computer-based surveillance to
identify and manage promptly patients who had been infected
with the virus.
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust used a combination of
The initiative meant that norovirus outbreaks at the Trust
14
October 2015