Press Releases

Bayshore Home Health Selects WinMagic's SecureDoc 
Full-Disk Encryption to Protect Patient Data

Point-of care technology enhances patient treatment

Toronto, ON, March 22, 2010 –Bayshore Home Health, Canada’s largest provider of home and community health care services, is installing WinMagic’s SecureDoc full-disk encryption software on all laptops and tablets, including those utilized by its clinical managers and nurses.

“Clinical managers are critical to the patient care process as they are the first to arrive at a patient’s home,” says Daniel Gallagher, Manager, Infrastructure & Support for Bayshore Home Health. “Clinical Managers assess the services patients require and we knew that providing them with technology at the point-of-care would improve efficiency and expedite patient care. We also knew that before we could only allow them to utilize laptops in the field we had to be absolutely certain all data is secure.”

“We looked at other encryption technologies, but none could meet all our criteria,” Gallagher adds. “Only WinMagic seamlessly integrated with our laptops and tablets to provide the combination of ease of use, ease of management, high-level security and local support we required.”

Bayshore’s clinical managers’ laptops will have WinMagic’s SecureDoc full-disk encryption installed when employees receive them. They will also be issued a cellular AirCard which, when combined with mobile VPN software, will provide simple, anytime, anywhere secure VPN tunnel access to central information resources. The ability to enter and access data immediately will enhance productivity by eliminating the need for field staff to return to branch offices – significantly expediting the delivery of patient care.

“SecureDoc installs in the background, which means Bayshore’s IT department can set up the laptops while they are working on other projects. As the full-disk encryption software does not impact laptop performance, users are not inconvenienced in any way,” Gallagher explains. “This is vitally important as the whole point of this project is to improve efficiency and patient care. It makes sense to treat patients at home because not only do people feel more comfortable in 
familiar surroundings, but it also saves on hospital care.”

“It’s great to think that SecureDoc is enabling Bayshore Home Health to improve patient care,” says Thi Nguyen-Huu, CEO of WinMagic Inc. “People tend to think of encryption as nothing more than data protection, but once information is secure organizations are free to focus on their core business.”

“Health care providers like Bayshore have selected SecureDoc because it meets strict data security requirements without distracting busy medical staff – enabling them to concentrate on providing the best possible medical care,” he adds.

Compatible with Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux platforms, SecureDoc protects all data stored on servers, desktops, laptops and removable media, such as USB thumb drives and CD/DVDs. SecureDoc supports and manages hardware-encrypted disk drives such as the Seagate® Momentus® FDE and BlackArmor™ drives, as well as the upcoming TCG “Opal” specification drives from leading drive manufacturers. This provides the flexibility to deploy any combination of hardware and software-based encryption – or transition between the two – with full transparency for users and a consistent management interface for administrators.

SecureDoc’s enterprise-class “always-on” full-disk encryption simplifies the deployment of any combination of sector-based full-disk encryption, file-and-folder encryption, container encryption and self-extractor encryption. This not only makes it easy for organizations to customize data protection to meet specific security protocols, but also ‘future-proofs’ their investment in encryption. And, in the event that a password is forgotten, or if the user is not available, centralized escrow and management of encryption keys ensure critical data can still be accessed.

About Bayshore Home Health

Bayshore Home Health has been enhancing the quality of life, dignity and independence of Canadians in their homes since 1966. Canadian owned and operated, it is the country's largest provider of home and community health care services, with more than 50 home care offices, 20 community care clinics and 8,000 employees. Its core services are in-home nursing, personal care and home support – which can be purchased directly by individuals and also accessed through government care programs, personal and group insurance plans and workplace safety insurance. The company also provides nurse/caregiver staffing services, health education programs and treatments in its community dialysis centres. Through its subsidiary, Bayshore Specialty Rx, it offers infusion pharmacy, infusion clinic and pharmaceutical support services to a variety of health care and pharmaceutical organizations.

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