This message is intended for individuals affiliated with the Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Health System who have hosted a meeting using the University of Pennsylvania Blue Jeans Virtual Meeting service on or after May 1, 2022.

Any meetings you have scheduled after June 30^th, 2022, will no longer be valid once your account is retired.

Please see below for more information. Directions about who to contact for assistance are also listed at the end of this email.

Attention Blue Jeans Virtual Meetings Users:

We want to remind you that the University of Pennsylvania’s Blue Jeans Virtual Meetings service will be ending on June 30^th, 2022. Users will not be able to use the service for existing or newly scheduled meetings after this date.

Due to this change, the IRB and the Office of Clinical Research have issued the following guidance. The University Blue Jeans Virtual Meetings service will no longer be an acceptable platform for conducting meetings involving PHI or virtual subject encounters. Users should plan to switch to Penn Medicine Microsoft Teams or Penn Medicine Zoom. If the visits involve research mixed with the conduct of clinical care or clinical procedures, you may use PennChart/ Switchboard platform.

More information can be found at the following locations:

• IRB Bulletin: Continued Use of Blue Jeans with Penn Medicine Patients in Research
• Telemedicine Platforms and Research – Guidance and Best Practices for Zoom, Blue Jeans and Microsoft Teams

Penn Medicine’s Blue Jeans service remains an acceptable platform for meetings involving PHI and virtual subject encounters.

What do I need to do?
Please plan to take the following actions prior to June 30, 2022:

• If you are using University Blue Jeans Virtual Meetings to conduct meetings involving PHI or virtual subject encounters, please plan now to migrate to any one of the acceptable services outlined in the OCR guidance
• All users who currently have University Blue Jeans Virtual Meetings recordings they wish to keep should download them prior to June 30^th, 2022. Information about how to download meetings can be found here.

Who Is Affected?

All current University of Pennsylvania Blue Jeans Virtual Meetings service users will be affected by the changes. 

Who Is Not Affected?

This change does not directly impact Blue Jeans Events, which is used for webinars and events and will remain an available platform.

This change does not impact the use of Blue Jeans for Telehealth within Penn Medicine. Patient encounters for clinical and clinical research purposes scheduled through PennChart and managed via Switchboard are not affected.

What alternatives to Blue Jeans Meetings are available?

Penn currently has 2 other centrally funded options for those using Blue Jeans.

• Zoom – Penn Medicine Zoom is available to active faculty, staff, and students, including for academic use, and is integrated with Canvas. More information can be found here: https://www.med.upenn.edu/dart/zoom/
• Teams – Microsoft Teams is available to all who have an active Penn Medicine O365 account and is recommended for meetings in administrative settings.

Questions

If you have any questions, please use the contact information below:

• Members of the Perelman School of Medicine can email bluejeans-psom-changes@pennmedicine.upenn.edu or contact your local support provider.
• UPHS staff should contact the IS Service Desk.
• University faculty, staff and students outside the Perelman School of Medicine should contact their local support provider.
• For more information on the available University of Pennsyvalnia Video Conferencing tools, please visit https://www.isc.upenn.edu/how-to/video-conferencing-tools.