Intel Launches Internet Services Business to Enable Trusted e-Health Transactions; AMA and Intel Team to Deliver Online Credentials to Physicians

Business Wire, Oct 12, 1999

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 12, 1999--

Healtheon/WebMD and MedQuist to Offer Physician Services Online;

WellMed to Provide Consumer Credentials and Services

Intel Corporation today introduced Intel(R) Internet Authentication Services (IAS), a business that develops online credential services designed to enable trusted health communications and transactions on the Internet.

The announcement was made at Intel's Internet Health Day II in New York, an event where health care leaders discussed how the Internet is impacting the practice of medicine and changing the way consumers access health information, products and services.

Intel's IAS business works with leading health care organizations to produce digital credentials that serve as "online health cards," allowing physicians and consumers to establish who is at each end of an Internet connection before trusted health information is accessed, discussed or exchanged.

Intel and the American Medical Association (AMA) have teamed up to deliver an AMA physician credential that will be available to physicians in 2000. The credential will allow doctors to take advantage of a wide range of emerging online physician services that require identity authentication. The credential will also be recognized by participating consumer e-Health sites that wish to offer trusted doctor-patient interactions online. Intel and the AMA are working with leading physician services providers such as Healtheon/WebMD and MedQuist to make the credential an integral part of trusted e-Health services.

"Making the Web a more trusted place is key to helping the health care industry move to the Internet," said Ronald J. Whittier, senior vice president and general manager of Intel Content Services. "We are enabling a new level of trust for e-Health services that can make doctors more efficient, reduce health care costs, and improve patient satisfaction and care."

"In the next decade of medicine, physicians will routinely navigate cyberspace with important information about patients and their care -- and the AMA needs to take the lead role in determining how best to do that securely," said Dr. Richard Corlin, Speaker of the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association. "By working with Intel to deliver AMA physician credentials, the AMA is anticipating the needs of our patients and our members, and rising to meet those needs."

New Services for Health Care Providers and Consumers

Healtheon/WebMD today announced that it will accept the AMA physician credential to enable trusted online transactions between physicians and service providers such as hospitals, labs and pharmacies. MedQuist today announced that it will accept the credential to provide physicians and hospitals with the ability to store and retrieve patient charts over secure Internet connections.

In addition, Intel's IAS business will provide authentication services to consumer e-Health sites. WellMed today announced it will offer digital credentials to consumers who wish to use the company's WellRecord(1) product to store, manage and maintain personal health information for themselves and their family members. Franklin Health will use IAS to enhance applications within its patient-centered care management system.

An Innovative Internet Service from Intel

IAS develops and operates authentication services for associations, organizations and e-Health sites that want to offer branded e-Health credentials to their users. IAS enables remote credential retrieval when users need access from a different computer, and performs maintenance to keep the credentials current. IAS does not collect, store or manage health care information, and e-Health sites do not access the credential user's security information.

"We've worked closely with industry leaders to create tailored authentication services for the unique and stringent requirements of the health care market," said Mariah Scott, business unit manager at Intel's Internet Authentication Services. "We are introducing the first nationally deployed, portable credentials for e-Health transactions, based on best-of-class security technology and high-reliability, high-availability servers."

Intel's customers will begin deploying credentials in Q4'99 with broad usage in the first quarter of 2000.

About Internet Health Day

Internet Health Day II was developed by Intel Corporation as a forum for leaders in the emerging Internet Health industry. Internet Health Day 1998 identified how consumers are being empowered by the Internet to find new ways of obtaining health-related information, products and services. Internet Health Day II explores solutions for bringing health care providers into the online world. Internet Health Day II is sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, American Medical Informatics Association, American Pharmaceutical Association, Internet Healthcare Coalition and People's Medical Society. For more information, please visit http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/events/9910ihd.>