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The requirement to keep medical records confidential is understood around the world. Many countries have either introduced legislation to ensure this or are working on it. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the USA has pointed the way forward and other countries have brought in similar compliance requirements. HIPAA regulations require health care organizations to formalise a plan that complies with audit, security, privacy and transaction exchange standards. Products from the Paranoia family are already in use around the world to ensure compliance with regulations. Even before the regulations were formalised some companies and government departments in the health sector had already seen this need and implemented Paranoia units as part of their system to ensure patient confidentiality. First sales in this area were made back in 1997. Paranoia units do not need to recognise the data, they simply encrypt information, be it doctors notes, database information, digital scans or pathology lab results. All data is written to tape in a secure way, so ensuring any media removed from a hospital or surgery cannot be read by unauthorised personnel. Whatever system you have, when you are writing data to a tape drive there is a Paranoia unit to meet your needs. Don't wait for the problem to occur, start implementing the solution before you have a problem! When you consider the damage of a legal challenge to a doctor over a reported mistake then you want to be sure the correct data is to hand and you have control of the release of that information to the media. Don't allow a 'well wishing' member of staff to send the raw data to the press for them to interpret.
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