Empowering Healthcare Providers with Decentralized Identity Solutions

So, good morning. So, I'm not talking about non-humans, I'm talking about saving lives here.

So, there's a complete other story, a big shift. So, how can we empower healthcare providers with decentralized or digital identities in general?

So, my background, I'm the founder of CTO. Seventy years ago, we founded a company, Digidentity, based in the Netherlands, but we operate globally. We are QTSP, so Qualified Trust Service Provider, but also an identity provider, both federated identities as decentralized identities.

So, we already onboarded millions and millions of people. And during that onboarding, we saw also a lot of fraud happening.

So, I'm not talking about fraud here, but more about the healthcare. So, what is the crisis in healthcare at the moment? We did a survey in the UK, asking HR professionals and directors of healthcare institutes what their biggest problems are.

So, 79 agrees that there is a recruitment delay in the healthcare sector. So, that's not a good thing, because that really stress the workers they already have, and they can't also deliver the care for the patients.

So, 98% highlight that there's indeed a negative impact. And even worse, in average, it's a huge amount of euros that they are not saving with this.

So, it's a really burden, not only on care, but also a financial burden in these institutes. So, 74% agrees with us that they need to do something, but only 2% is doing really something.

So, it's really a need that this profession is going digital as well. So, what have we done and what we have proposed for them? Remote identity proofing.

So, that's nothing new, but in this sector it still is new. But this is in general that works for every vertical, not only healthcare.

So, first identification. So, reading the MRZ code, the machine readable zone in the document.

So, we have some keys from that MRZ code to unlock the chips. And when we're unlocking the chip, we can read the chip.

So, we prefer chip reading with our app because that's the most safest way for identity proofing, remote identity proofing. Some chips, if you have India, Philippines, there are no chip in the documents yet.

So, we still do the optical route, but that's not so. It's trustworthy, but we still prefer the chip because all the crypto is in there is really making it better. And then the third step, most important step, is the verification.

So, in the chip, we get the original picture from the identity document. And with that, we do lifeless detection with selfies.

So, we don't have a video, a remote video session. We really can do the onboarding. If you're a tech staff, you do it in three minutes, but we see on average nine minutes that the people are onboarding. And in that onboarding, in the selfies, we have lifeless detection. We have replay attacks. We can detect also fake videos. We don't accept them.

So, it's really a person. And then the face comparison.

So, really well. We do that already, I think, now for 15 years. And it's really also technology getting better and better and better.

So, in the end, you have an identity on your phone in our wallet. We had already a wallet before a wallet was a thing.

So, we were a little bit ahead of the curve. And in this wallet, this was not decentralized yet. Now it is.

So, in this wallet, you get your personal identity data. And that's living in our platform as a federated identity, but also we deliver now in the newest version also verifiable credentials. And we can do both. SDJOT or MDOK.

So, we deliver both technologies. And for the user, it doesn't matter. They don't care. Because they have no clue what federated is, what SDJOT is, what MDOK is.

So, what we've done in our Swiss army knife of identity is our app sees a QR code. When it's scanning the QR code, it's knowing which protocol has to act and which data has to deliver from the phone directly on for the backend system from the federated system. But there's even a bigger problem. If you have big organization like trust hospitals in the UK, for example, you have a lot of workers. You have a lot of employees. How do you get this identity in the hands of these employees? Because our system is, for example, in the Netherlands, we are part of an ecosystem.

And that identity doesn't live in your IAM system. It lives in our platform. Because we are notified by the European Commission to deliver this kind of high identities.

So, it's really separated from your own IAM system. So, when we were doing this for big corporates, we get sometimes phone calls from the finance department.

Hey, this guy is not working for us anymore. I was a little bit shocked that the finance department detected that and not the compliance department. Because this person had still a qualified signature, so he can sign on behalf of the company. Or even worse, he has authorization, so he was still authorized to do things on behalf of the company. While he was not working there anymore.

So, compliance was an even bigger issue than the financial impact. So, what we've done in this whole onboarding system, that's not on our part. That's really on the IGA part. And especially so when people are off board.

So, we made a SCIM connector. And with the SCIM connector, we already have live applications.

Now, we're live with the four big major banks in the Netherlands, for example. They're all using our identities and sometimes also the qualified signatures from our platform. And they're connected directly with Microsoft Entra, Omada, One Identity, SailPoint. All these IGA systems now already have live operations on our platform. To really make that part easier.

So, also in healthcare, if you do this, you can really save a lot of time. Because when you're onboarding and offboarding, it's almost automatically connected to our platform. What we can do if you have that wallet with that PID.

So, especially for healthcare. In the UK, you need right to work. You need the DBS check. You need to have your qualifications ready. And nowadays, it's a burden for the healthcare sector. Because it was an effort, I think it was three or four days. That the doctor or a nurse was doing interviewing. And not only interviewing, but proving that they're human. That they have the right qualifications. It takes three to four days. A lot of traveling in there to go to another hospital.

So, what we've done. We've created the credentials. Employment credentials. Education and training credentials. As really verifiable credentials. We do that now for NHS.

So, NHS has in the new staff passport from NHS. Our SDK is fully embedded in there. In this case, it's even. Because they have a large Microsoft network. We issue the credentials. Not in the standard European format. But in the Microsoft SDGOT format. It's slightly different.

So, in that same app, there's also Microsoft wallet. And our wallet together. And the operating together smoothly in the app. And the user doesn't see it.

So, in fact, they're logging in then with the Microsoft Entra wallet. Completely next to ours.

So, we do it onboarding. And issue the credentials in the Microsoft wallet in one app. And the user, it's really easy for the user to do. That will save a lot. Because we go from the three to four days. We go to three to four minutes. Or maybe a little bit longer. And make it ten minutes.

So, that's going to happen. So, what's happening already today.

For GMC, the General Medical Council in the UK. We already onboarded remotely more than 50,000 doctors all over the world. Because they have a need for doctors. Qualified doctors. And they get them there everywhere.

So, on 49 nationalities, we already onboarded. With remote identity proofing. And the doctors can still stay in India or the Philippines. Or Nigeria or the US. Doesn't matter where they live at the moment. And they can already start the whole remote onboarding process. What saves a lot of time.

And money, of course. So, here the average. What we see with the doctors. Is seven minutes and 19 seconds. That's taken to really onboard remotely a doctor.

So, that saves 2 million pounds annually on travel costs. So, this is a real big saver for GMC on the money. And I think every organization is looking to save money. And this really can help. And it's really 95% of the identity checks are successful.

So, it's only 5% that fail. And for all kinds of reasons. Because the chip is broken in the document. Or some other problems. Or there's not even a chip in the document.

So, sometimes you need to do some extra checking. Because you really want to know that this doctor is a real doctor. That it's this person.

So, you see some quotes here from Sri Lankan users. Egyptian users. And German users. And UK users. They're all really happy with onboarding. It saves a lot of time for them. And especially these doctors. In the past, they had to travel.

So, when they are in India, they really had to travel first to the UK. To prove who they are. And then now they can do it from India. When the whole onboarding process is ready. Then they can go to pick up their travel tickets. And go to the UK.

So, it's really important. Because in healthcare, every second counts. And let the doctors and the healthcare workers concentrate on what they do best. To save lives.

So, what we try to do as an organization. Give them a tool in their hands. Where not only their identity is checked. But also their credentials are checked.

So, they really can concentrate on what they do best. And that is helping other peoples. That's it. Applause If you'll pardon me Marcel. Your ending was very Dutch. That's it. Laughter I wanted to ask you. Did you encounter any regulatory or policy challenges. In implementing high assurance EID in the UK and the Netherlands.

And if so, how did you get around this? So, that's really the easiest part. It's challenging. But 70 years ago, when I founded the company. We were concentrating. How do we get to EID as high. And that's in EID as one. Now we are facing EID as two. But in one, it's the same level of assurance.

So, we really concentrate to make that process the best process. For the end user.

So, yeah. We tick all the compliance there. And it's a lot of ISO certifications. A lot of certification.

So, we are lucky that we have a real Dutch compliance officer. So, he's banging on every door internally. That everybody is doing the right job. And therefore, we tick also the box for the compliance. Even in the EID as two. And completely remote and level high. We are the only one that is allowed to onboard on EID as level high. Completely remote.

Okay, fantastic. And then, have you expanded the use of the wallet beyond healthcare to other sectors? Such as legal or finance? Or do you plan to do so? Yeah.

So, we won a tender. I think it's now one and a half or two years ago. In the automotive sector for Europe.

So, every car mechanic is using our wallet. So, in every European country. They need to access security data for cars.

So, when they need to reprogram a car key. Or recalibrate the cameras in the windshield. And need to log in by Tesla, Honda, Volkswagen. All the brands. All the brands are connected to our platform. And all the mechanics in Europe using our wallet to access these platforms.

So, this is that proof. Not that they are a doctor. But that they are a mechanic. And they are allowed, for example, to work on a high voltage car. Because that's also dangerous. If you don't have the qualifications to work on that.

So, in healthcare you see that. Automotive you see that. And it's for many other sectors where qualifications are important. Entitlements are important. It's the same blueprint.

Great, thanks. Give it up for Marcel Bent, everyone.