SDFI's Multi-Purpose Role At The June 2016 NCA Leadership Conference
As a National Corporate Partner, SDFI is poised to attend the National Children's Alliance (NCA) Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. during June 5th through the 8th, 2016.Besides hosting a booth highlighting our various photodocumentation system solutions, SDFI's Ward Allen, will be giving a talk, entitled, "Facts, Fears, Photos and Myths of Digital Forensic Photodocumentation".
One of the topics Ward will be informing his listeners about is the NCA's 2017 Standards for Accredited Members.
Specifically, important points for these standards include:
- "CAC (Child Advocacy Centers) are responsible for ensuring that exams are performed by experienced, qualified examiners at the appropriate location and time, and that exams are photo-documented".
- "Diagnostic-quality photographic documentation of the ano-genital exam findings should be obtained in all cases of suspected sexual abuse, using still and/or video documentation".
- "CACs should have policies in place for secure storage and release of examination images that protect the sensitive nature of the material".
For more information and to sign up to attend this presentation, click HERE.
If you or your director will be attending this conference, be sure to attend Ward's talk (and stop by our booth!).
Time to Do A 180 On Office 365?
As more and more companies are storing individual's information files on cloud-based storage, it is not a pointless exercise to examine how secure you feel doing the same thing with your own information and that of your patients.On Microsoft's website, they invite you to "Improve Collaborative Care with Office 365 for Health". On the same page, they also state "Address HIPAA security & privacy requirements". However, right under this sub-heading, right there on the main page, before we even teleport over to their whitepaper link, Microsoft says: "Office 365 meets MANY local regulatory and compliance requirements for health organizations…" Click HERE.
HIPAA, however, is federal.
Upon clicking on their 'whitepaper' link, we are taken to this document, where right off the bat, Microsoft states: "This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT".
Further into the document, on page 8, again, Microsoft makes another similar statement: "This paper is not intended to advise organizations of their legal requirements and responsibilities. It is assumed that the reader understands the laws and regulations mentioned in this paper and how those laws and regulations apply to their organization".
Now, consider SDFI-TeleMedicine.
We offer nested end-to-end encryption that is Secure Beyond Reasonable Doubt®. We do not use cloud-based storage. If you are using Microsoft for your forensic or medical data, you should be concerned that Microsoft is able to access your patient and/or victim data. With SDFI, we simply can not know what is contained within your local SDFI System or what data you move through the SDFI File Portal System. Your forensic data is triple encrypted within SDFI's Secure File Portal. Click HERE for more information.
SDFI is Beyond HIPAA Security - no small print, or disclaimers, period.
Setting The Record Straight...
By definition, the purpose of a Sexual Assault Forensic Exam is to gather, collect, handle and preserve forensic evidence in a manner suitable for use in a court of law. Payment for the forensic portion of the exam is not processed through the patient, a health insurance company, or a health care clearinghouse; therefore, HIPAA rules do not apply. For more information about reimbursement for forensic exams, please click HERE.Health care and medical care, if offered, are billed and managed with a healthcare clearinghouse, therefore HIPAA rules do apply to the the health care/medical care part of the forensic exam.
For more information on this topic and relevant sources, please click HERE.
SDFI Staff Says "Cheese" For Good Reasons!
According to www.NoMore.org, 12.7 million people are physically abused, raped or stalked by their partners in one year. That's approximately the population of New York City and Los Angeles, combined. That's 24 people EVERY minute…
During the "No More Week of Action", March 6 through 12, 2016, all members of SDFI turned the camera on themselves and took a stand, stating on "No More" posters what each one of them wanted to see abolished, in terms of domestic violence & sexual assault. They posted their support on nomore.org and on their social media sites.
"Domestic violence and sexual assault are extremely heartbreaking. The fact that they occur at all makes us all extremely mad," SDFI Marketing Assistant, Julie Steeper says. "We are happy to join and support this awareness campaign – one incident is one too many."
You can go to nomore.org and support the cause, too. Together, we can all work to end these terrible crimes.
April 16, 2016 was the annual "Start By Believing" day by End Violence Against Women International (EVAWI), who designed this public awareness campaign to change the way we respond to rape and sexual assault in our communities.
SDFI workers decked themselves out in their favorite jeans in support of Denim Day, which took place on April 27, 2016.
For the past 17 years, Peace Over Violence has run its Denim Day campaign on a Wednesday in April in honor of Sexual Violence Awareness Month. The campaign was originally triggered by a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court where a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped her rapist remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The following day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans in solidarity with the victim. Peace Over Violence developed the Denim Day campaign in response to this case and the activism surrounding it. Since then, wearing jeans on Denim Day has become a symbol of protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual assault. In this rape prevention education campaign we ask community members, elected officials, businesses and students to make a social statement with their fashion by wearing jeans on this day as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions that surround sexual assault.
There is no excuse and never an invitation to rape.
Make No BONES About It...
We would like to introduce you to our newest staff member.Her name is "Bonita". She is a bit quiet and prefers to make fashion statements in her Ray Bans, instead. But seriously, Folks, Bonita is a full-scale replica of a 41-year old European female, who stood five feet, six inches tall, and weighed 133 pounds at the time of her death, which was caused by heart failure due to drug overdose.
SDFI met Bonita, a replica, at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Conference earlier this year. She was invited back to the office and SDFI asked her to help in our efforts to learn more about Forensic Anthropology!
Here Ye, Here Ye - We Made The Press!
Imagine how excited we were all feeling at SDFI when we took a look at March 28, 2016's edition of the Las Vegas Business Press, and saw SDFI-TeleMedicine was featured on the front page! The article is comprised of business advice from our founder, and information about our company.
CHECK IT OUT!
Click, Like, Tweet!
If you don't know already, we have a Facebook site. You can get to it by clicking HERE.
Be sure to "Like" our page! To receive even more news from our Facebook site, click on the down arrow to the right of the "Like" button, and you'll get the options to see our posts first in your newsfeed, and also to receive notifications from us when we post! Keep up-to-date with us on Facebook!
As a side note, we are also on Twitter! Come follow us HERE. Stop on by and send us a tweet!
It's A Busy Spring...So Far!
SDFI forged new territory in April when we participated in our inaugural HCCA (Health Care Compliance Association) Convention in Las Vegas, and let me tell you – it was a FABULOUS experience! We met so many compliance-committed people, who showed a great interest in SDFI's solutions, which in particular, can benefit compliance groups throughout the nation. For example, our SDFI Systems allow nurses in the field to perform Continuity of Care to rural patients, or patients who cannot make an appointment into their healthcare facility. Hospital workers were also interested in our solutions which would benefit them in their roles as they perform Worker's Compensation, Patient and Employee Safety Tasks – just to name a few areas.We also attended the Michigan Chapter of the National Children's Alliance conference (MINCA) in April. SDFI was representing three-fold: through our interactive booth, our sponsorship of MINCA's Conference App and by Ward Allen's myth-busting presentation, "Technology Facts, Fears and Myths of Digital Forensic Photodocumentation Within Multidisciplinary Child Advocacy Centers".
SDFI Sponsored the Arizona Child And Family Advocacy Network's 14th Annual Director's Summit, in May.
Please be aware that you need to take advantage of SDFI's Upgrade and Exchange Program by