ZL Unified Archive® Provides Total Information Governance and HIPAA Compliance for Unstructured Data That Exists Beyond EHR Silos
Published by: Marketwired
SAN JOSE, CA – Feb. 20, 2014 ZL Technologies, Inc. (ZL), a global leader in managing unstructured Big Data for enterprise-class organizations, will be exhibiting at the HIMSS 2014 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando. As the healthcare world depends increasingly on the control of diverse data types, it is evident that sensitive information is often falling outside the bounds of established tools such as Electronic Health Record (EHR) platforms. With the ZL Unified Archive® (ZL UA) providing centralized governance for the “dark data” of unstructured content, healthcare providers can ensure defensibility and security of information even as it is exchanged between existing IT systems. The industry-leading HIMSS 2014 event, scheduled from February 23-27, will feature ZL Technologies at Booth #940.
The urgency inherent to healthcare providers has often led to the proliferation of data silos and ad hoc IT systems that were individually built to fulfill a narrow role. Even in the best of circumstances, there are practical limitations to long-term planning, and clinician adoption rates for new technology are often slow. Interoperability between common health IT (HIT) platforms is often limited, necessitating cumbersome export, conversion, and data transfer practices. The result is often a partitioned landscape of data in which there is no central point of control, and where duplicate data copies accumulate without oversight. For organizations handling sensitive patient information and communications that fall under HIPAA regulation, the process can create immense risk.
The Unified Archive takes a holistic view of data management and consolidates control of the “messy” unstructured data copies which are often exchanged and duplicated between existing IT systems. Emails, files, attachments, instant messages, and even corporate social media posts can be securely archived and managed for compliance control and lifecycle management, eliminating duplication and much of the risk associated with movement of sensitive or regulated information. By offering HIPAA encryption and additional safeguards such as a pre-review feature for email messages, potentially non-compliant communication within the ZL environment can be escalated for review and prevented from accidentally leaving the business firewall.
“In healthcare, ‘records’ are often thought of primarily in the context of EHR, but that interpretation ignores the bigger picture,” noted Kon Leong, CEO of ZL Technologies. “With information such as doctor-patient emails often floating outside of established management tools, there needs to be a safeguard in place that can offer unified control and protect the ‘dark data’ that is inevitably generated and exchanged within siloed systems.”