66 MDG streamlines log-in process through AFSO 21

  • Published
  • By 1Lt. Geoff Buteau
  • 66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
HANSCOM AFB, MA --  The 66th Medical Group is the first in the Air Force medical community to implement a new streamlined procedure to access patient's records that promises to save up to two hours each day in valuable time for medical professionals.

Under the new login procedures, medical professionals at Hanscom's Clinic use a card similar to the Common Access Card to access patient records and other medical information without having to log on then log off of their individual access accounts, as was previously required.

At a three-day Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century workshop in October 2007, the 66th Medical Group identified two hours each day that clinic personnel spent logging on and off computers because the log-in process only allowed one person to use a computer in an exam room at a time.

"When you log into your workstation with your CAC, you are actually logging into not just that computer, but the Hanscom network," said Capt. Robert Hassinger, the 66 MDG Medical Information Systems flight commander. "When the user removes his CAC, the computer locks. If someone else uses their CAC on that same computer, it will log off the first user off and log in the second user," he said.

"This takes a while," said Captain Hassinger.

The AFSO 21 team agreed with Captain Hassinger, given the amount of times physicians and technicians log in and out of the same terminals across the clinic. They asked him to request a common log-in account from the 66th Air Base Wing Communication and Information Division.

Joseph Boeggeman, chief of Plans and Programs and technical advisor with the Communications and Information Division here, discussed with the AFSO 21 team and Captain Hassinger options for realizing the common log-in account initiative.

The result of the collaborations was that rather than using the standard military identification card, or CAC, to log on to access medical information, 66 MDG personnel now have what's called an alternative token, said Col. Jackson R. Dobbins, 66 MDG commander.

"An alternative token is a software solution on a [separate] card which meets the same public key infrastructure requirements [as the CAC] for login," Mr. Boeggeman said. In this case, medical personnel will be issued Group tokens, which allow multiple users to log in as the same identity.

While streamlining the process of computer access, it was critical to maintain the level of security the previous system had, said Mr. Boeggeman.

There is a special operating procedure in place for the alternative tokens, since they are classified as controlled items, said Captain Hassinger. "Token users must sign out and accept responsibility for the token. Although they belong to the same account, each token has a specific serial number so security and non-repudiation are preserved."

Another challenge to the process was getting the Air Force PKI office to consider group tokens for this purpose, said Mr. Boeggeman. Working with this office was primarily the task of his team in the communication and information division here.

While the Air Force PKI office anticipated group tokens when they implemented the alternative tokens, it had never been used until now, and not for the purposes of streamlining medical personnel log-in procedures, Mr. Boeggeman said. Getting the PKI office to consider the tokens for this purpose was the challenge.

After sound reasoning and persistent advocacy by the communication and information division and the medical personnel involved, the PKI office approved the initiative.

"What followed was completing the required documents and working the technical nuances with various configurations and patches," Mr. Boeggeman said. "It now works as advertised. Despite never having done this before, the team did great."

"The group token initiative is in the early stages of implementation and practical testing at this point," Captain Hassinger said. "We plan on testing the solution with one clinical team, then eventually rolling it out to the rest of the teams."

"This solution is actually advancement toward a next generation wireless access infrastructure throughout the Air Force that will eventually use Radio-Frequency Identification technologies," Mr. Boeggeman said.

With RFID-equipped cards, doctors, nurses and medical technicians will have server access via mobile tablet computers in addition to the desktop computer terminals, allowing seamless and quicker interfacing among patient, care-provider and medical information.

"That is a long-term dream of each of us over here," Colonel Dobbins said.

This "proximity card" method would use the same technology as contactless credit, debit or mass-transit payment cards, where users pass their card by an access point and their information is read and accessed wirelessly.

This Second Generation Wireless infrastructure allows encrypted wireless access points to be connected to the Unclassified Internet Protocol Routed Network (NIPRNET), said Mr. Boeggeman, and though in the review and approval process Air Force- and command-wide, it is still several years off. It was one of the original proposed solutions following the results of the 2007 AFSO 21 workshop here.

"Although it remains a ways away, we remain committed to getting the next generation wireless here as soon as possible," Mr. Boeggeman, said. "It's the real solution our medical providers need to give the highest quality of care in the least amount of time."