Synzi Uses ClearDATA on AWS to Ensure Compliance for Virtual Care Platform

Synzi is a virtual care company dedicated to providing better ways for providers and payers to engage colleagues, patients, and members simply and efficiently. The company’s mission is to deliver technology to the healthcare industry that drives better access to care for patients and members through the advancement of a state-of-the-art communication platform. This platform enhances the telehealth marketplace by combining various communication methods that enable home health organizations to deliver the same quality of care more cost-effectively and provide the best patient experience. “We want to enable better performance for healthcare organizations, better health outcomes for patients, and better bottom lines for home healthcare agencies,” says Mark Knudsen, Chief Technology Officer at Synzi. The Synzi platform empowers providers, nurses, and care managers to communicate with their patients through a variety of channels like video and mobile technology, enabling more efficient and secure virtual communication and care.

Because the Synzi communication platform processes patients’ protected health information (PHI), Synzi needed a secure environment to ensure that care managers and providers can communicate securely with patients. Synzi also knew that compliance is critical for health organizations to lower their own risk of engaging in noncompliant communications such as exchanging information via SMS in a nonsecure environment. “Patient data must be secure, and we have to protect our customers, their staff, and especially their patients,” Knudsen says. “We wanted to work with a technology partner that could help us ensure we have a compliant environment.”

As Synzi prepared to launch its business in 2018, the company knew it needed to leverage the scalability and elasticity of the cloud. “We were starting small but wanted to grow quickly, with no infrastructure overhead to worry about,” says Knudsen. The company chose to build its platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which Knudsen had used previously. “I had a great experience using AWS in the past, so I knew this was the right technology to help our company launch and scale cost-effectively.”

Synzi engaged ClearDATA, a Premier Consulting Partner in the AWS Partner Network (APN), for assistance. ClearDATA is also an AWS Healthcare Competency Partner and an AWS Life Sciences Competency Partner. ClearDATA acts as a trusted advisor, helping Synzi determine the best way to use AWS services to keep its platform compliant and its sensitive data secure. “ClearDATA delivered exactly what we wanted in terms of expertise and allows us to put our efforts into growing our business,” Knudsen says. “ClearDATA supplied several architects to help design our architecture and ensure data flow was compliant, and it provided guidance on how to get onto AWS and get up and running on day one.”

Synzi uses the ClearDATA Healthcare Security and Compliance Platform and takes advantage of ClearDATA’s Automated Safeguards, which ensure that all Synzi services are secure and updated. Automated Safeguards also help Synzi’s technical operations concentrate on internal development, while ClearDATA focuses on DevOps processes through the software automation of backups, antivirus, encryption, and audit logs.

Relying on AWS, Synzi can use services such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) to grow its business without spending time and money managing and maintaining hardware. “We wouldn’t be able to scale our platform without AWS,” says Knudsen. “We can quickly spin up servers on demand when we need to add more clients and never worry about running out of capacity. This also helps us deliver the best experience because AWS gives us the reliability our clients require.”

Synzi can focus entirely on its core competency because ClearDATA automates configurations and delivers capabilities to keep Synzi’s services compliant. “We can invest in our core business because ClearDATA helps us in our day-to-day technical operations,”
says Knudsen.

Working with ClearDATA makes it easier for Synzi to comply with HIPAA and other critical healthcare regulations that protect patient privacy. “ClearDATA brings a lot of value to us because its products, based on AWS, help us ensure security and compliance through configuration settings, alerts, and monitoring,” says Knudsen. “This helps our organization be certain we’re doing what it takes to stay compliant.”

Synzi is currently undergoing a service organization control (SOC) 2 audit, with the goal of gaining a certification for SOC 2 compliance. The ClearDATA Compliance Dashboard has helped Synzi throughout the audit, enabling the company to document and view how it is managing its technology. “To pass the SOC 2 audit, we had to make sure our environment was configured correctly,” Knudsen says. “All operational data generated on AWS is captured automatically in the ClearDATA Compliance Dashboard, so we can view it and see if we need to address anything. This Compliance Dashboard was a very powerful tool that helped us accelerate the processes we needed to pass the audit.” By sharing the certifications and capabilities of ClearDATA, Synzi can speak confidently to the security and management of the platform. “We’re trying to improve the delivery of healthcare, and we want to do that by making care more efficient for providers and patients and, ultimately, enabling better outcomes,” says Knudsen. “As we continue to grow, we are confident ClearDATA will support these efforts by keeping our platform and our customers’ data safe and secure.”