DriCloud incorporates within its medical software an “independent third party” service for handwritten or biometric digital signatures with legal validity, ViDSigner, which integrates with the PDF documents generated and stored in DriCloud, facilitating the linking of the electronic signature of patients and doctors for informed consents and other documents such as the signing of estimates and invoices or the GDPR.
Digital signature of consents on iPad or Android tablets
VIDSIGNER is a cloud-based digital handwritten signature service that allows for legal signatures to be signed directly on capacitive tablets, eliminating the need for paper as a support for the signing act, creating the robust evidence and proof that is needed in the event of litigation. VIDSIGNER operates as an “Independent Third Party” Service Provider, to provide the maximum guarantees of technical and legal security , ensuring that the parties cannot manipulate the document or access the biometric data.
One of the aspects that our clinics face, and that we facilitate from the DriCloud medical software , is the digital transformation of all bureaucratic and documentary aspects related to patient management, to achieve a PAPERLESS CLINIC . Due to the clear economic and management advantages, Law 41/2002, of November 14 (which regulates the rights and obligations regarding patient information and clinical documentation), allows the use of computer means for archiving the clinical history.
However, there is still paper-based documentation that involves a high cost of completion, handling, storage and management of recovery if necessary. Sometimes we are not aware of the legal implications that apply to our practice, and we can make mistakes in the administrative part, after having explained to the patient the risks of an intervention, such as:
- We do not worry about the patient signing the express consent.
- They sign it and it is filed generically along with thousands of other documents, making it easy to lose.
- We scan them so as not to lose them…but we lose the ability to assign a signature in the event of a conflict (experts cannot evaluate photocopies).
- We use a digital signature collection system, but without guarantees. In the event of a request for “that is not what I signed”, if we cannot demonstrate the reliability, robustness and independence of the system, it is like having nothing.
Specifically, the lack of informed consent (Law 41/2002 of November 14, article 8) can have serious repercussions for the clinic or the physician if, in the event of an incident, they have to provide such a document as documentary evidence that the patient was adequately informed of the possible risks of the intervention, and that the patient accepted them expressly and voluntarily in writing.
Adapting to the new times, the concept of written document must be understood as much as possible under the law 59/2003 on electronic signature; as well as the new regulation eIDAS 910/2014 of the European Parliament , (July 2014) on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market. And it is that, in its Preliminary Considerations regulation # 52, it already indicates that “Due to its multiple economic advantages, the creation of remote electronic signatures should be developed in an electronic signature creation environment managed by a trust service provider on behalf of the signatory.” In addition, this decree regulates and promotes independent trusted third party services, because the participation of a third party such as Validated ID is the only way to generate “robust” evidence in the signing process.
In fact, the legal considerations regarding the written form can be summarized, according to legal opinions, as “the informed consent document in any format (paper or electronic) will be valid as long as the authenticity of its signature can be demonstrated, through any means, in the event that it must be enforced before the patient or third parties ”. That is to say, the substrate on which the signature is recorded, whether paper or electronic, is not important, but rather that if necessary a handwriting expert can verify that there could not have been any alteration of the document, and rule on the authorship of the signature .
DriCloud integrates the VIDSigner service
A third-party legal service from the Validated ID entity, which offers the maximum technical and legal guarantees for obtaining the signature of informed consent from patients and the approval of the physician in a fully digital format, with the electronic document available to the signatory and the Clinic at the time of signing and at any other time in the future, thanks to these features:
- Ease of use. Understandable and immediately adoptable.
- Ensures that the document displayed on the device matches the document to be signed, and that it cannot be modified afterwards.
- It captures the dynamic biometric elements of the signature and embeds them in the resulting PDF, but in an encrypted form under a notarial custody key, so that no one (neither Dricloud, nor Validated ID, nor others) can access said elements if the notary does not unlock them by court order in a process.
- Protection of information in accordance with the Organic Law on Data Protection and audit processes.
- Durable support, in a cryptographic signature format
- Legal responsibility of Validated ID as an independent third party. Service operated by a company specializing in IT law with the participation of recognized certification providers and notaries.
- Protection against loss of documents, by including them in the patient’s history in Dricloud.
Digital signature of consents and budgets
WHAT DEVICES SHOULD I USE FOR THE DIGITAL SIGNATURE?
Find the devices approved by VIDSigner : view devices
WHAT ADVANTAGES DOES THE DIGITAL SIGNATURE OFFER FOR MY PRACTICE?
- It directly stores the patient’s signature within their medical record.
- Compatible with both Android and iOS systems (iPhone and iPad)
- It allows you to 100% customize the documents to be signed: informed consents, confidentiality clause, budgets, health questionnaires, medical history, check-ups, treatments, satisfaction surveys
- Simplify administration tasks by reducing patient waiting time.
- Provides the medical professional and the medical center with an element of distinction
- By signing documents electronically, patients and physicians are assured that these documents will not be altered in the future.
- Patients and physicians can ensure that their biometric signature is protected by an independent notary.
- It saves many cubic meters of files, and ensures that, if necessary, you will find the documents that support your good practice.
DriCloud allows you to incorporate documentation into the electronic medical record without the need to physically store the signed documents, always trying to reduce the amount of paper stored in the files of medical centers and reducing the risk of loss and non-compliance with the LOPD, informed consents and others.
Every day, new ways of communication between doctor and patient are appearing . But the only way for these ways to be used safely is by incorporating security and encryption mechanisms that guarantee a sufficient level of confidentiality in the transmissions.