Healthcare IT security company Imprivata launched Confirm ID, a secure software for electronically prescribing controlled substances.
The Lexington, Mass.-based company, which also develops software for banking, energy and governmental functions, introduced the product in reply to the Drug Enforcement Agency's rule allowing e-prescriptions for controlled substances. E-prescription is a rapidly growing standard — from July 2012 to December 2013, physicians wrote 3,000 more e-prescriptions each month than the previous month, according to a study in the American Journal of Managed Care.
Electronic prescriptions reduce the risk of fraud presented by paper prescriptions. On paper, physicians' signatures and DEA numbers can be exposed and used inappropriately. E-prescriptions like ConfirmID require identity proofing for each physician.. The software supports fingerprint identification and one-time passwords and providers can choose which ID method they prefer. The whole system is a two-factor authentication system, so any user must satisfy two security requirements to get into the system.
"[Electronic prescribing] also decreases errors and removes cumbersome workflows associated with high-cost, hand-written prescriptions, which increases productivity for prescribers and safety and convenience for patients," said Michael A. Lee, MD, director of clinical informatics at Atrius Health in Massachusetts, in an Imprivata news release.