We receive many inquiries about encryption and many of the questions are with regard to finding a suitable platform to conduct online therapy. All therapeutic communication should be encrypted but what does that mean? Well, it means that the message is scrambled so that if anyone (a hacker, for instance) intercepts the message, it will not be readable. See the example below:
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Determining which platform to use, or whether or not to build an in-house solution can be confusing. In the United States, practitioners must be aware of HIPAA laws as well. While Online Therapy Institute is an international organization, HIPAA, for all of the confusion surrounding it, provides a solid stepping stone for practitioners everywhere in determining how to deliver services most confidentially.
This link provides excellent information about encryption based on HIPAA requirements and sets the standard for encryption services across the globe. The document was written by the American Medical Association to address telehealth and PHI (Protected Health Information) but serves as a guide for any person or organization seeking to encrypt mental health services.
Caution! This document contains a lot of tech speak but don’t be afraid! If you are not tech savvy, pass this along to your IT department or ask questions of the 3rd party platform based on this document’s contents.
http://www.ama-assn.org/resources/doc/psa/hipaa-phi-encryption.pdf
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