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What You Should Know
- CLEAR® announced that its secure identity platform, CLEAR1, is now live with two production integrations inside the Epic Toolbox: one for EpicCare Link (community provider access) and one for Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS).
- The integrations directly target clinical identity fragmentation—a vulnerability exploited by credential stuffing, social engineering, and generative deepfakes—by establishing a unified, biometric identity layer across the clinician lifecycle.
- For EpicCare Link, CLEAR1 replaces manual paper forms and administrative reviews, enabling community, referring, and affiliated clinicians to self-onboard and create access credentials in seconds using a government ID and a facial biometric selfie.
In-Workflow Biometric Verification Across Epic Endpoints
The new integrations embed CLEAR1’s identity proofing and continuous authentication directly into standard Epic workflows, eliminating manual administrative steps:
1. Self-Service Onboarding for Community Providers in EpicCare Link
EpicCare Link serves as the primary web-based application through which non-affiliated community physicians, referring practices, and post-acute facilities access a health system’s patient charts. Historically, granting external providers access required hospital IT staff to conduct manual license verifications and process notarized identity forms. Under the live integration in the Identity Verification for EpicCare Link Epic Toolbox category, external clinicians can self-enroll in minutes. By verifying their government-issued identification against a live selfie via CLEAR1 on their smartphone, providers can immediately stand up authenticated access without administrative overhead.
2. Drummond-Certified Biometric EPCS Authentication
Prescribing Schedule II through V controlled substances carries rigorous statutory mandates governed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) under 21 CFR Part 1311. The regulation mandates two-factor authentication using two distinct factors: something you know (knowledge factor), something you have (hard token/cryptographic key), or something you are (biometric data).
CLEAR1’s integration—now available under the End User Authentication Epic Toolbox category—has achieved Drummond Certified® status via independent third-party auditing by Drummond Group, LLC. This certification verifies that CLEAR1’s individual and institutional practitioner identity proofing, biometric match pipelines, credential revocation safeguards, and EHR audit logging fully conform to DEA EPCS mandates. Clinicians complete a one-time IAL2 verification and can subsequently authorize controlled-substance orders at the point of care in seconds using biometric re-verification, bypassing cumbersome hardware tokens.
Kristin Milano, AVP of Cybersecurity at Ochsner Health, highlighted the operational balance: “Secure access shouldn’t have to come at the expense of a delightful onboarding experience. CLEAR’s integration with EpicCare Link creates an opportunity to make identity verification easier for referring providers and their staff while maintaining the trust and security these workflows require.”
