Roughly speaking, Moore’s Law famously holds that the number of transistors on a chip will double approximately every two years, thereby bolstering processing speeds accordingly.

A recent announcement from DataMotion, which specializes in cloud-based data delivery services, makes us wonder if perhaps someone should take a crack at a similar prediction when it comes to health IT.

The announcement revolves around a provisional patent the company recently filed for a new technology that aims to simplify and expedite email communications of personal health data. According to a company release, the new technology, dubbed the "Method and Apparatus for Securely Communicating Using Public/Private Keys," will simplify the process used by the federal Direct Project to create the digital certificates needed for the secure transfer of health information via email.

The company claims that “once this technology is in place, any time a physician attempts to send an email using The Direct Project, the message will be securely sent via the existing S/MIME method, regardless of whether or not the recipient is enrolled in the system. This allows physicians to get on with their work without introducing disruptions.”

As Bob Janacek, DataMotion’s co-founder and CTO, described it, "The technology associated with our provisional patent makes it practical for patients and healthcare organizations to communicate securely using the Direct Project."

DataMotion is discussing the solution with U.S. health information service providers associated with The Direct Project, as well as electronic medical record vendors and healthcare integrators. Like all DataMotion data-delivery services, this new capability will leverage the DataMotion Platform, a cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that aims to help organizations reduce the cost and complexity of exchanging sensitive information with employees, customers and partners in a secure and compliant way.