ADA technical report on securing electronic health information available for comment

The American Dental Association Standards Committee on Dental Informatics has approved for circulation and comment a technical report on the requirements for securing electronic protected health information and how they should be addressed in a dental practice.

Proposed ADA Technical Report No. 1018: Technical Security Mechanisms and Their Application to Dentistry covers requirements for protecting data sent over the internet and authenticating data received.

The draft technical report is available by calling the ADA toll-free number, ext. 2506, or emailing standards@ada.org . The comment deadline is July 11.

The ADA is accredited by the American National Standards Institute to develop national standards and technical reports for products and information technology used by dental professionals and consumers. There are currently more than 100 national standards, and more are under development.