A Digital ID Fix To Closing The Telehealth Security And Patient Confidence Gap

Surging COVID-19 infection rates and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advice to avoid all non-essential hospital visits have driven an uptick in the demand for digital healthcare services.

Telehealth services, in particular, are growing more common, with one New York state hospital reporting that 85 percent of its outpatient visits are being conducted via telehealth systems. All the while, other technologies, from contact tracing apps to digital immunity passports, are working their way into the dialog surrounding healthcare.

As digital health services expand, so too is the demand for digital identity authentication systems to ensure fast, safe and seamless transfers of healthcare information they collect. The July Digital Identity Tracker® examines how healthcare providers, FinTechs, universities and governments around the world are rising to the challenge and collaborating to deliver accessible healthcare services amid a global crisis.

Around The Digital Identity Ecosystem

Contact tracing technology is in the headlines as businesses, schools and other organizations search for ways to limit the risk of contagion. Anderson University in Indiana, for example, is launching a COVID-19 tracking app with Daon called IdentityX Health, which enables students to monitor their vitals for signs of infection and automatically notifies campus staff as well as individuals on users’ contact lists if it detects unusual vital signs.

Such solutions may be a hard sell for consumers, however. Recent studies suggest that 71 percent of consumers are too concerned about data privacy issues to use them. All the while, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other institutions are advising against using such tools, reasoning that there is not enough evidence to prove that surviving the virus once guarantees immunity from a second infection.

Other organizations are focusing less on contact tracing and more on expanding healthcare access more broadly. The AARP Innovation Labs and Howard University, for example, are joining forces to enhance remote healthcare services for consumers in underserved communities with chronic health conditions, such as hypertension and heart disease.

How HealthTap Meets Flexible Telehealth, Data Security Demands

The pandemic is driving a market-wide increase in the demand for remote heart care services, including telehealth options, which consumers can access from the safety of their homes.

For this month’s Feature Story, PYMNTS spoke with Sean Mehra, co-founder and chief strategy officer of HealthTap, to learn how the telehealth platform is working to meet consumers’ expectations for their health data security.

Deep Dive: Why The Pandemic Is Changing Digital Identity’s Importance In The Healthcare World

Hospitals and healthcare professionals are working to develop new ways to offer remote services to meet consumers’ growing demands for digital healthcare options arising during the pandemic. This is in turn increasing the demand for data security systems that can help support them.

This month’s Deep Dive provides a statistical portrait of the market development for digital identity solutions amid the pandemic.

About The Tracker

The Digital ID Tracker®, done in collaboration with Jumio, is your go-to monthly resource for updates on trends and changes in the digital ID industry.