Technical FAQs

Question

We want to use one PAS instance for multiple customers while ensuring their calls and data are separated so that other customers cannot access them. Is there a way PrizmDoc can accomplish this?

Answer

How To:

Use the following steps to set up the multi-tenancy feature:

  1. Add a new line inside of /usr/share/prizm/pas/pcc.nix.yml (Linux) or C:\Prizm\pas\pcc.win.yml (Windows) in the following format:

undocumentedFeature.multiTenancy: “enabled”

  1. After enabling this feature, all requests to PAS must include the header accusoft-tenant-id. The following shows an example request for creating a new viewing session:
POST /ViewingSession HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:3000
Content-Type: application/json
accusoft-tenant-id: myUniqueTenantId
cache-control: no-cache
Postman-Token: 5edd698a-5e4f-46d2-b93a-42cc57371dce
  {
  "source": {
  "type": "document",
  "fileName": "1040ez.pdf"
   }
  }

NOTE: All Tenant Ids are converted to lowercase and must be unique between tenants. This means that in terms of the application both “MyTenant” and “mytenant” are equivalent and would be able to see the same files. Tenant Ids are not generated for the application and must be generated and handled by the integration components. Tenant Ids are also strictly alphanumeric at this time.

File storage including Documents, markupXml, formDefinitions and markupLayerRecords will now be appended with the
{tenantId} as shown in the above example with a Documents configuration of /usr/share/prizm/Samples/Documents. The request would attempt to create a viewing session from the following file: /usr/share/prizm/Samples/Documents/myuniquetenantid/1040ez.pdf

Viewing Package data stored in the database will have the tenantId included in the composite index as well as include an accusoftTenantId column.

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Question

Is it possible to make a call to an external API when annotation saving is complete?

Answer

In the Viewer, you can bind functions to the MarkupSaved event mentioned on the following documentation page in order to execute code when annotations are saved to the server:

https://help.accusoft.com/PrizmDoc/latest/HTML/webframe.html#Subscribing_to_Events.html

A full list of events exposed by the Viewer can be found here:

https://help.accusoft.com/PrizmDoc/latest/HTML/webframe.html#PCCViewer.html#.EventType

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PrizmDoc Cloud API

Powerful patient portals are now essential for healthcare organizations to deliver high-quality care, even at a distance. Despite advancements around functionality, however, challenges remain. As noted by Healthcare Info Security, many healthcare providers still struggle with providing solutions to patients in an easily accessible portal that provides the security they require by law.

Here, HIPAA compliance is critical. Healthcare organizations need portal solutions that deliver valuable information without undermining regulatory requirements around data security and handling. Creating innovative, secure patient portals demands HIPAA-compliant tools that deliver advanced viewing and redaction tools while keeping privacy in practice.

The State of Healthcare Security

Security remains a problem for healthcare organizations as attackers ramp up efforts to access private patient and operational information. The healthcare industry saw more than 41 million records breached in 2019 and new attack vectors are now emerging as hackers look to leverage pandemic pressures and breach corporate security. It’s no surprise, then, that last year saw 28,261 HIPAA complaints, the highest number ever recorded, as organizations deployed more user-friendly technology and attackers looked to capitalize on potential weaknesses.

Ramping up security in patient portals and meeting emerging patient needs is a priority for organizations. Accusoft’s PrizmDoc Cloud, a HIPAA compliant solution, is capable of offering user-friendly portal capabilities inside your own secure application. The right combination of existing technology and cloud-based application programming interfaces (APIs) can take your patient portal to the next level. Let’s break down five key cloud-based APIs that can help patient portals deliver on practical potential.

Robust Document Viewing with PrizmDoc Cloud API

Effective medical care depends on documents. From patient consent forms to test results and referrals from other healthcare practices, documents form the core of custom-built treatment plans. While the transition to electronic health records (EHRs) has helped reduce the complexity and confusion that comes with paper-based processes, this digital transition has introduced the challenge of document diversity. 

From typical Word documents to Excel spreadsheets and scanned images of handwritten forms, patients need the ability to access documents on-demand, while healthcare organizations must ensure that patient access options are both secure and HIPAA-compliant.

The PrizmDoc HTML5 Document Viewing API offers document and image viewing while also streamlining the process with key features including:

  • Responsive Web UI — Patients and staff can easily view documents and images that are scaled to fit their tablet, laptop, or mobile phone.
  • Configurable Controls — Organizations can easily enable or disable tabs, localization, rendering options, and encryption within their patient portal.
  • Microsoft Office (MSO) Conversion — Healthcare agencies can integrate true native viewing of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

Reliable PII Redaction

Data privacy is paramount for HIPAA compliance. As noted by Managed Healthcare Executive, this is especially critical in the world of COVID-19. With telehealth now the “new normal” — and likely to continue long after the pandemic subsides — organizations must ensure that protection of personally identifiable information (PII) remains intact.

While robust encryption and identity access management (IAM) tools form part of this function, redaction is another critical aspect. Consider the case of children. As noted by the Health Info Security piece, although parents typically have complete access to the medical records of children under 12, PII for those between the ages of 13 and 18 — such as mental health records — may be restricted. For healthcare agencies, this requires patient portal solutions that allow parents access to some data while also protecting specific PII. Here, robust redaction APIs that allow organizations to obfuscate key information are critical to meet regulatory requirements without compromising ease-of-access.

Regulated Image Compression

Images form a critical component of effective patient prognosis and treatment plans, and while DICOM files used in high-fidelity imaging are often a priority for medical agencies, there’s also a need for image compression solutions that enable the portability of more common image types such as JPEGs.

Consider the simple case of patient identification. By attaching high-quality photos to patient records, medical staff are better equipped to ensure the individual they’re assisting — virtually or in-person — is the patient linked to the account. High-quality JPEG photos are also useful to record and track the progress of specific physical ailments over time. Cloud-based image compression APIs streamline this process with the ability to compress individual or multiple files, set desired quality, remove metadata, and set JPEG mode output.

Rapid File Conversion

Complexity remains a challenge for healthcare records management. As patients visit general practitioners (GPs) and specialists, data volumes rapidly increase, in turn making it difficult for doctors to find specific information and create comprehensive treatment plans.

Multi-file combination and conversion to popular formats such as PDF helps solve this problem — not only can healthcare staff create files that are easily viewed by doctors and patients alike but administrators can also set key permissions around editing, annotating, and printing to ensure information remains secure. File format conversion with PrizmDoc Cloud APIs can help enhance patient portals with key features including:

  • Easy combination of multiple files into single PDFs
  • Data security with optional password protection
  • Specific section or entire file conversion
  • Searchable output formats

Relevant Watermarking

Last on our list of patient portal APIs is watermarking. By labeling key documents with unique healthcare watermarks, organizations can both improve front-line security and enhance HIPAA compliance. By training staff to only accept and process watermarked images and documents, companies can reduce the risk of potential compromise. If attackers attempt to spoof or modify key documents they can be easily detected because they won’t carry corporate watermarks. These marks also form a key component of auditing and data tracking if healthcare agencies are evaluated for HIPAA compliance by providing a visible chain of custody around document creation, storage, and access. 

User-friendly patient portals are critical for healthcare companies to survive in the “new normal” — and embrace what comes next. But speedy access requires a robust security balance; document viewing, redaction, compression, conversion, and watermarking APIs from Accusoft can deliver privacy in practice and capitalize on patient portal potential.  Try PrizmDoc Cloud API.

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legal technology

Access to justice is a problem. As stated by the Honorable Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack in a recent “Reimagining Legal Technology” panel discussion, “8 out of 10 people with civil legal problems can’t afford lawyers.” However, self-service solutions for consumers and productivity applications for litigators could improve outcomes for all parties. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is driving transformation in the legal space as those in the field seek out remote opportunities to keep legal proceedings moving forward. As a result, new remote capabilities have helped to further the conversation around access and a digital-first approach to legal processes, including the storage, review, and delivery of evidence and other supporting case information.

Shifting Mindsets in The Legal Field

An interesting insight offered by Gary Sangha, a serial legal technology company founder, is that technology produced exclusively for the legal market is several years behind the innovation found in other markets. 

This is profound for a few reasons. While it certainly suggests that some areas of the profession are slow to adopt new technology, it could also suggest to software developers that failing to provide cutting-edge capabilities for legal professionals could cause litigators to look elsewhere when selecting new technology upgrades—which are being budgeted for right now as courts and law offices strive to find better ways to serve their clients in a digital-first environment. 

Also interesting is that when you investigate the marketplace for inspiration, you can find a wealth of features with cross-application potential. Serving a market that has been traditionally slower to adopt cutting-edge, purpose-built legal solutions isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it comes to product development because there’s so much inspiration to draw from other markets.  

Technologies Transforming the Legal Space

Legal technologies gaining steam include artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language markup. This represents a giant shift in the way legal professionals work. While lawyers did very individual, competitive work in law school previously, many of the leaders of legal institutions, like Chief Justice McCormack, are trying to shift this mindset to more collaborative work.

The value of legal work used to be in knowing where to find key information. To remain competitive while improving access for those seeking legal services, litigators must move to a team-oriented approach to case making. Systems exist to automate much of the information storage and retrieval process. Therefore, the true value is no longer in being able to find key information, but rather curating the information in such a way as to create solid cases for clients. 

However, without information storing, gathering, and processing software in place, litigators may spend as much time searching for information as they do building cases. That’s why software application developers need to consider advancing the core capabilities of their solutions to include vital legal functionality that automates key elements of The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM), which includes: 

  • Identification 
  • Preservation 
  • Collection 
  • Processing
  • Review
  • Analysis 
  • Production 
  • Presentation 

One top law firm reported experiencing a 70% increase in phishing attempts since the pandemic began, and as Law.com points out, “IT Managers have gone from managing 400 people in one office to having 400 single-person offices.” This can easily create quite a security crisis as resources are spread thinner than ever before. Without tools to drive accountability to data governance best practices, the odds of one of those hundreds of phishing attempts successfully breaking through significantly improves. 

Umbrella technologies covering most of these processes include cybersecurity and information governance solutions that protect access to critical information while equipping essential personnel to safely and collaboratively markup, redact, and process sensitive data. 

Ramping Up to Meet Emerging Demands

Though litigators have been slow to adopt emerging technologies in the past, COVID-19 is driving fast transformation in this space. The push to digital-first formats is a tremendous growth opportunity for application developers that stand ready to deliver the functionality required to facilitate due process via secure collaboration capabilities that include:

  • Annotation 
  • Redaction
  • Full text search
  • Support and aggregation capabilities for hundreds of file formats
  • Digital Rights Management (DRM)
  • The added security of digital watermarking and 256-bit AES encryption 

If building all these features from the ground up sounds like too much for your already-busy team of developers, then consider partnering with a trusted third-party like Accusoft. When you need to add key functionality quickly in order to meet a legal client’s needs before their budget expires, we can be your competitive advantage. Application developers partner with us for in-demand, brandless features for the legal field because we help them launch a fully supported feature in just weeks instead of months or years. To learn more about Accusoft legal application features, discover our capabilities in our eGuide, Finding Common Ground.

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