Liberty Alliance Announces Health Identity Management SIG

Liberty Alliance, the global identity consortium working to build a
more trusted internet for consumers, governments and businesses worldwide,
has announced the launch of a global public forum formed to develop an
interoperable, secure and privacy-respecting information exchange system
for the healthcare sector. The Liberty Alliance Health Identity Management
Special Interest Group (HIM SIG) is leveraging the Liberty Alliance model
of addressing the technology, business and privacy aspects of digital
identity management to meet the unique identity management and regulatory
challenges facing the international healthcare industry today. The
Health Identity Management SIG offers members an opportunity to join
with other Liberty Alliance Members (regardless of membership level)
to recommend standards to enable an internationally interoperable health
care identity management and information exchange system. This may
includes standard directory (LDAP) models, health care roles,
implementation guides, and similar recommendations. The SIG will review
existing standards, and recommend new standards for an interoperable
health care identity management system using Security Assertion Markup
Language (SAML) and Liberty Specifications. Co-chaired by John Fraser,
CEO, MEDNET USA and Pete Palmer, Security and Cryptography Architect,
Wells Fargo, the HIM SIG currently includes over 30 members from around
the world representing the education, government, healthcare and technology
sectors. Members are working to address how the healthcare industry will
deliver secure identity management solutions that meet global regulatory
mandates and ensure patient privacy. The public group is working closely
with the Liberty Identity Assurance Expert Group to ensure requirements
for standardized and certified identity assurance levels in the
healthcare sector meet criteria established in the policy-based Liberty
Identity Assurance Framework.