Princeton Junction, N.J., August 20, 2009 – Case studies from New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center and New Hampshire’s Memorial Hospital on smart patient health card implementations will highlight a webinar presented by the Smart Card Alliance in partnership with Corporate Research Group (CRG). Presenters will also detail changes in healthcare identity management regulation, and the importance of establishing a secure, robust, scalable healthcare information management infrastructure both within healthcare organizations and with healthcare data exchanges.

The free educational webinar, “Identity Management in Healthcare,” will take place on Tuesday, September 22nd from 1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m. eastern time. To register, please visit http://www.corporateresearchgroup.com/webinars/showWebinar.cfm?confCode=ZW09150

“Everyone with a medical record somewhere can understand the importance of having their identity correctly tied to their medical records–it is vital in regards to quality of care and privacy,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “Now, increasing regulatory requirements are forcing healthcare providers to look at new approaches to patient identification and authentication. This webinar will address the changing landscape of healthcare identity management, the challenges within, and results already achieved.”

Presenters are: Lawrence Carbonaro, director of purchasing and patient retention, The Memorial Hospital, North Conway, New Hampshire; Paul Contino, vice president of information technology, Mount Sinai Medical Center; Richard Marks, co-founder and president, Patient Command Inc.; and Randy Vanderhoof, executive director, Smart Card Alliance.

“It is always our goal to bring our clients and readers the most timely topics in healthcare. With the Obama administration’s effort to more strongly enforce HIPAA* and move U.S. healthcare into a more modern and efficient information era, this is a good time to have these experts in healthcare address the issue of identity management,” said Carl Mercurio, president, CRG.

Webinar sponsors are Gemalto, Infineon Technologies, LifeMed, Inc., and the Smart Card Alliance.

About Corporate Research Group

Corporate Research Group has been serving the managed healthcare marketplace for over 14 years as the industry’s leading source for breaking news, strategic intelligence, market research and custom consulting. CRG products consist of print and electronic newsletters, e-mail updates, annual forecasts, conferences, audioconferences, CD-Rom’s and the unique Managed Care Access online information service.

About the Smart Card Alliance

The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.

Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visit http://www.securetechalliance.org.

*The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act