Digital ID in health care: New leadership and market-minding

Digital ID and biometrics are making news in health care through vendor leadership, new business and me-too marketing.

The most significant market move this week is the announcement that Fran Rosch, CEO of enterprise authentication service firm ForgeRock, will become CEO of digital identity security firm Imprivata next month.

Rosch had led ForgeRock for five years and ushered the firm into a SaaS model before announcing the switch.

Imprivata’s exiting chief executive, Gus Malezis, will be a strategic advisor. Malezis had led the firm for seven years. His new role is “expanded” but the company describes it no further.

Imprivata, which sells to the health care industry, is owned by Thoma Bravo, a software private equity firm that also owns IAM firm ForgeRock. It’s a step down in scale for Rosch.

Thoma Bravo bought ForgeRock in a deal valued at $2.3 billion; it acquired Imprivata in a transaction valued at $544 million.

Of ForgeRock’s seven largest industries, its smallest market is health care. Imprivata addresses just health care, which is good and bad.

It’s good because executives in that industry are beginning to take digital ID and biometrics more seriously, according to investment analysts, but it’s bad because it limits revenue prospects to one industry.

Meanwhile, enterprise identity verification firm Verato, also in health care, says it has signed a contract with University of Louisville Health, a regional carer.

UofL will deploy Verato’s master data management software, which it refers to as hMDM. Financial details of the deal were not made public.

The platform will ensure system-wide ID management. That includes 1,000 health care providers, something less than 200 practice locations, four medical centers and eight hospitals.

And, finally, identity security executives with HID Global have created some marketing content expressing why the health care industry should buy facial recognition ID systems from them. HID sells into many industries, two of which are relevant here: hospitals and education institutions.

Article Topics

appointments  |  biometrics  |  digital ID  |  HID  |  Imprivata  |  patient identification  |  Verato