In response to this post in my weblog on 2/28 .. I received the following e-mail:
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Dr. Reider – I'm passing on the following from Stacy Smith, Executive Coordinator of HealthyEmail, regarding your 2/28 posting on www.docnotes.com
Please feel free to use the following in it's entirety there, and to contact us if you have any questions concerning the HealthyEmail initiative. Thanks.
March 7, 2003
Dear Dr. Reider, I was recently apprised of a posting on your website, Family Medicine Notes, dated Friday, February 28, 2003 and felt compelled to contact you to clarify several misconceptions about HealthyEmail.
HealthyEmail is a nonprofit organization, recently created to maximize the potential of email use in the healthcare industry.
The organization is addressing the increasing problems involving physicians' email communication with patients, hospitals, insurers and other doctors, particularly where sensitive patient information is involved. HealthyEmail is not one in the same with Zix Corporation.
To be sure, ZixCorp has been integral to the formation of our initiative, providing us with seed funding, facilities and some manpower to jump start HealthyEmail operations, as well as a grant of two million licenses of ZixMailTM. These resources came at a very critical time for our organization as we had a short amount of time to accomplish a great deal.
However, despite ZixCorp's initial support, their "control" over HealthyEmail is limited to one vote on our nine-person Advisory Board. As the Healthy Email operations move into higher gear, I anticipate that one or more of the companies represented by advisory board members will also make financial contributions. We're also hoping that other companies in the industry will step forward to support this initiative as it becomes better known. I also want to note that the initial HealthyEmail tool set includes more than just the ZixMail application. It includes educational materials, policies and patient pamphlets.
The HealthyEmail program came about out of interest from the industry to address the problems around adoption of secure email by physicians and their staffs. After discussions with various industry organizations, it became apparent that adoption of secure email by physicians was a concern and of interest to a significant number of industry organizations, and that the answer was a combination of education, process and technology, which was greater than anyone healthcare organization. As for the matter of the licenses of ZixMail being free for two years, they are exactly that. That verbiage that was discovered in the licenses, regarding the 30-day trial period, was inadvertently carried over from standard ZixMail licenses.
This oversight is being corrected as I type. Finally, regarding the concern you raised about luring physicians in with a free offer and then charging them a premium after the free period has expired: The intention was to provide the tool for a reasonable amount of time for organizations to understand the benefits of secure email. As this has been a frequent question, discussions have been taking place to provide the licenses at a very reasonable price after the two years has expired. I hope to have this issue resolved in the next few weeks.
Any organization that would like to learn more, or who would like to participate in the HealthyEmail initiative, should not hesitate to contact me at 866-###-###. Very truly yours, Stacy S. Smith Executive Coordinator.
