HIPAA Compliant Clouds for Mobile Health Apps

Last Friday morning, I had the great pleasure to learn more about HipaaCat, a new mobile health app developed by fellow Chicago residents Dr. Gregory Dumanian, Chief of Plastic Surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Paul Hannon, President of SD3. The mobile app was designed to improve communications between members of a health care team including the chief doctor, nurses, resident physicians, physicians assistants, and medical students.

Last Friday morning, I had the great pleasure to learn more about HipaaCat, a new mobile health app developed by fellow Chicago residents Dr. Gregory Dumanian, Chief of Plastic Surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Paul Hannon, President of SD3. The mobile app was designed to improve communications between members of a health care team including the chief doctor, nurses, resident physicians, physicians assistants, and medical students.

For the plastic surgery team, HipaaCat is used to monitor tissue health during periods of critical healing. Recent restrictions on the number of hours worked by residents meant that the chances of the same person being able to monitor changes in tissue over the course of 12 – 24 hours are slim. At the same time, an accurate reference for the state of tissue health is critical to informed care decisions.

As one might imagine, in the field of plastic surgery and many related medical applications such as vascular surgery, trauma care, orthopedics, and infectious disease, a picture can tell more than a thousand words in an EMR.

Dr. Dumanian and Paul Hannon were both cognizant of the need to handle patient images and information in a private, secure, and confidential manner. They also knew that quick availability of the images was paramount to informed monitoring. A combination of encryption, private link sharing and approving between the chief and residents, and independently audited HIPAA compliant clouds helped them bring the concept to reality and into practice at the hospital.

Stay tuned for the complete case study exploring the path to development, and don’t miss Dr. Dumanian and Paul Hannon at Online Tech’s Fall Into IT event Friday, September 14th, where they will share their application in person.

HipaaCat App

HipaaCat is a communication system for health care providers to share notes and images about patients in a HIPAA compliant fashion with their cell phones.

Dr. Gregory Dumanian, Chief of Plastic Surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Dr. Gregory Dumanian, a native Chicagoan, graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College, and trained at the finest medical programs in the country. After graduating with honors from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, he completed a five-year residency in general surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He followed this with three years of plastic surgery training at the University of Pittsburgh, one of the premier plastic surgery programs in the country. He then completed a fellowship in hand surgery at the Curtis Hand Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Learn more about Dr Dumanian and Northwestern Memorial Hospital at www.drdumanian.com

Paul Hannon, President, SD3
Paul Hannon’s experience spans many industries and business processes. He began his profession with Hyatt Hotels and later Ameritech, analyzing business processes and systems, designing databases and developing software. He branched out into system architecture, project management, and business development while at Oak Brook-based BALR Corporation and later became a Principal at Chicago-based Whittman-Hart and marchFirst. At SD3, Paul continues to focus on customers through his trademark ability to drive client initiatives to successful completion. Learn more about Paul Hannon and SD3 at www.sd3.com

Recommended Reading:
Cloud Computing and Compliance
Managed Care Outlook: Cloud Computing for Healthcare
Outsourcing Cloud Computing Security