Alaska was recently the first state in the U.S. to allow texting with a HIPAA-compliant mobile application, statewide. Jim Jordan is the Executive Director of the Alaska State Medical Association, which recently endorsed use of the smart phone app DocBookMD. Jordan says it will improve service, especially when it comes to referrals between the bush and urban centers.
DocBookMD can be used with mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, iPod touches and Android phones. ASMA endorsed the mobile app in July. The Medical Exchange of California, a professional liability insurer in Alaska, is providing the app free-of charge to ASMA members.
The application is encrypted to protect confidential information. Before approval of DocBookMD app, doctor’s who texted information about patients were in violation of HIPAA regulations and could be charged with a felony offense. Jordan says he expects doctors to begin using the app by the New Year. That’s also when broadband internet service needed to operate the mobile devices used to access the app should begin in arriving in Southwest and Western Alaska communities.
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Daysha Eaton is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Daysha Eaton holds a B.A. from Evergreen State College, and a M.A. from the University of Southern California. Daysha got her start in radio at Seattle public radio stations, KPLU and KUOW. Before coming to KBBI, she was the News Director at KYUK in Bethel. She has also worked as the Southcentral Reporter for KSKA in Anchorage.
Daysha's work has appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", PRI's "The World" and "National Native News". She's happy to take assignments, and to get news tips, which are best sent via email.
Daysha became a journalist because she believes in the power of storytelling. Stories connect us and they help us make sense of our world. They shed light on injustice and they comfort us in troubled times. She got into public broadcasting because it seems to fulfill the intention of the 4th Estate and to most effectively apply the freedom of the press granted to us through the Constitution. She feels that public radio has a special way of moving people emotionally through sound, taking them to remote places, introducing them to people they would not otherwise meet and compelling them to think about issues they might ordinarily overlook.
