The Itium Santé solution dedicated to hospital environments simplifies and makes secure the access of roaming medical care personnel to the information system of hospital centres and to the personal data of patients stored on the Sesam-Vitale cards

Les Ulis, 16 January 2007 – Impact Technologies has announced that it shall integrate in its Itium thin clients offer, new functionalities meeting the needs of health care professionals in the hospital environment. The Itium Santé offer can now handle the USB readers for the Sesam-Vitale and CPS cards and provide new functions of identification without contact and decentralisation for roaming personnel such as nurses and doctors.

With more than 40 hospital centres equipped, Impact Technologies is the leading French supplier of thin client solutions for the use of health care professionals. Its solutions allow the hospital centres to simplify, automate and make secure the access of health care personnel to the information system of the establishment and to patient data, besides improving the quality of service provided to the users.

For the first time, a thin client under Windows CE supports fully the USB card readers used in Sesam-Vitale applications

Impact Technologies has adapted the operating software kernel of its Itium thin clients, based on Windows CE, for accepting the Sesam-Vitale or CPS smart card readers on the USB port through RDP and ICA protocols. Already leader in the connection of card readers on the serial port through its universal solution “RemotePlug”, Impact Technologies repeats its performance by allowing the healthcare professionals to access the Sesam-Vitale data of their patients, from any Itium thin client equipped with a USB card reader.

Secure identification complying with CNIL recommendations

The Itium Santé solution also facilitates the secure roaming access to confidential patient data. The doctors or the nurses may be equipped with a Mobil’Itium USB key, which contains all the authentication data of the user. By inserting it into the USB port of the thin client, the roaming hospital professional can connect automatically to his work environment, without having to enter a password. When the Mobil’Itium USB key is disconnected, there remains no trace of the thin client session. This decentralised authentication method is the only one complying totally with the CNIL recommendations regarding the protection of personal data.

Simplified authentication for intensive usage

For more intensive usage such as the emergency services, Impact Technologies also proposes a method of identification by card without contact. The BlueLoc system allows the medical care professionals, nurses or doctors equipped with a badge to open automatically a connection on the thin client as soon as they are near the system and to close this connection when they move away from the workstation. This solution offers a unique guarantee in terms of security of the workstation and the confidentiality of patient files.

As regards IMPACT Technologies: Created in 1987, Impact Technologies is the manufacturer for ranges of new generation Itium thin clients and for the Fitwin asynchronous communication adaptors, which are among the most popular sold on the market today. In the thin client domain, Impact Technologies conceived and integrated the embedded operating systems Windows CE, Linux Embedded, Windows XP Embedded. As entirely upgradeable systems, the Itium thin clients can be managed, configured and updated remotely, via the administrative interface delivered with the terminals. Impact Technologies is the only supplier in the market to include its package of administrative aids, hot lines and follow-up for software updates in the initial acquisition costs. To date, more than 65000 terminals have been installed worldwide. Impact Technologies is also the European number one and among the leading world players in the asynchronous communication adaptor market. The Fitwin adaptors are installed in more than 1 million items, and in almost one third of the automated cash dispensers in the world. They are also used in the retail and distribution industries, in railway systems, and in numerous other industries. Based at Ulis, near Paris, and with about 20 employees, Impact Technologies recorded a turnover of 5.7 million euros in 2005.