About The Integration:
Plait securely integrates with Medtech practice management systems (PMS) with ALEX.
What is ALEX?
ALEX is a secure software intermediary that allows your practice to share patient information securely with any third party of your choice, including patient portals, in a way that adheres to international data security standards for health records.ALEX stands for (Application Layer EXchange). It is an API (Application Programming Interface) which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other, such as your Medtech PMS and your patient portal. You are already using APIs every time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message or check your bank balance on your phone. There are international security standards in banking, and this keeps your identity and financial information safe when you bank online. Until now, New Zealand has not adopted a similar set of recognised, international standards for healthcare data exchange.ALEX in collaboration with a team of industry experts, has changed that!
How is ALEX different?
Third parties have been connecting to your PMS by making their own read/write requests to the Medtech PMS database. There are no approved security standards or appropriate safeguards for this connection, and your informed consent has not always been requested.By connecting this way, third parties can inadvertently cause other issues with the operation of your PMS, such as slowing everything down, and when Medtech releases an update, connections can break. When any of this happens, it is difficult to identify the source of the issue and therefore who can fix it. Most importantly, this legacy way of connecting is highly insecure. Third parties inadvertently gain access to all your patient data, and this information can inadvertently be shared unnecessarily.
How does ALEX work?
ALEX supplies a secure connection that ensures only necessary data is shared or stored by third parties. Only the patient data your practice has consented to share with a third party is accessed when necessary by the third party for a specific purpose.
Why is ALEX important for my practice?
With ALEX your practice can share healthcare data and records to the highest international standards in trust and security – for the first time.Your patients have peace of mind that their sensitive data is not being shared unnecessarily. Third parties are not required to create bespoke database connections to your practice information, and they are not then required to support and fix those connections with each Medtech release. Third parties can concentrate on creating their own innovative software instead.
How To Integrate:
ALEX has been included in the Evolution 3.0 Build 3.0.0.71 – COVID Vaccination Update (March 2021) and Medtech32 23.0 Build 6783 – COVID Vaccination Update (March 2021) releases, and we can simply activate ALEX on receipt of your informed consent. There is no action required from your practice to get ALEX installed and activated and no cost to your practice to use ALEX. All we need is your informed consent to activate ALEX in your PMS. ALEX only needs to be activated once.
