London – 7th May 2009 – Whilst the media has been making much of the soaring numbers of Swine Flu cases around the world, little has been reported about the behind- the-scenes technology being used to track and assist health professionals in handling the outbreak.
Cyber-Ark, an international IT security vendor, has been instrumental in supplying its leading edge technology to a number of governments, notably health agencies in Israel and the UK, to ensure that all relevant agency staff are kept up to date on this potentially major health issue.
“The secure and rapid dissemination of information has been – and will continue to be – a central plan to health agencies’ IT strategies in dealing with the Swine Flu outbreak,” said Roy Adar, VP Product Management at Cyber-Ark.
“We have been working with a number of agencies in supplying and installing our Inter-Business Vault® and Governed File Transfer technology both of which allow a wide variety of professionals, including those in the medical profession, the ability to communicate effectively and securely, about the Swine Flue outbreak,” he added.
According to Adar, security is of paramount importance when dealing with all types of medical issues, and not just high profile issues such as the Swine Flu outbreak.
Medical professionals, he explained, are understandably wary of using any form of technology that allows patient details to flow outside of their direct control to third parties.
Using Cyber-Ark’s high security technology, government and medical officials both in the UK and Israel have been able to communicate efficiently with other professionals and third parties without any security worries or hassles they would experience using conventional email systems.
In the UK, he said, the company has supplied the relevant health agencies with its Inter-Business Vault technology, which allows professionals to share medical information with hospitals, doctors and clinics about the Swine Flu outbreak.
According to Adar, as more information is collected about the disease, making sure this knowledge is quickly shared with the relevant medical audience, saves critical time and results in a better ability to control the disease.
Over in Israel, meanwhile, Adar says that the Israeli Ministry of Health has been using the same technology for several years to help control and allow early identification of diseases.
All Israeli hospitals are connected via the Inter-Business Vault system to the Ministry of Health, and blood test results – together with a variety of other relevant information – are securely and quickly exchanged/shared amongst the country’s medical communities.
“It’s interesting to note that, as details of the Swine Flu started to reach the newswires, Israel was able to quickly supply reliable and accurate details as opposed to rumours of its outbreaks to the relevant world agencies – and the media – in a timely and efficient manner,” said Adar.
“The fact that Israel was able to supply this information in a timely manner, and so help to allay the fears of the public, shows the value of early detection and rapid information flows,” he added.
