BT helps secure healthcare industry

Telco giant partners with Siemens Medical Services to aid compliance with healthcare security rules

BT has strengthened its identity and access management (IAM) portfolio through a partnership with Siemens Medical Services.

The deal will see the telco push Siemens Meds DirX IAM product suite at UK healthcare institutions as a means of complying with industry regulations on data security.

DirX automates user accounts, grants associated access rights and offers integration with SAP systems such as NetWeaver. It can also utilise smartcards and other kinds of physical access technologies, which should help IT departments ensure that only authorised medical staff can access sensitive patient data.

In a report commissioned by BT last year, Forrester Research concluded that IAM has a number of benefits beyond security and compliance, including increased employee productivity and mobility, reduced help desk costs and centralised IT management.

The alliance between BT and Siemens Meds will initially focus on providing IAM solutions to the UK, France, Germany and the US. It is not clear if BT will use DirX for other UK customers outside the healthcare industry.