As a $4.1 trillion industry, healthcare has a history of attracting all sorts of nontraditional players. CLEAR, the private-market version of expedited airport security, is the latest to land in the space. The company hopes to leverage its passenger identity technology to create a universal patient identity system. By partnering with institutions such as the University of Miami Health and Wellstar Health, CLEAR aims to streamline information into a single, secure account.
The big health record in the sky: Experienced EHR companies have a huge head start when it comes to patient identification in everyday practice. CLEAR might find healthcare is far more complicated than air travel. Alan Ayers, MBA, MAcc, president of Experity Networks and Practice Management Editor of JUCM, notes that identifying the patient isn’t really a pain point in urgent care. He cautions that this could be yet another “solution” looking for a “problem” to solve in healthcare.