A Look At DirectTrust’s Work in Healthcare Interoperability

After hearing about DirectTrust passing the 2 billion message mark, we thought it would be valuable for readers to learn more about DirectTrust and the healthcare interoperability work their non-profit is doing.  Plus, they have their DirectTrust Summit coming up on June 9-10, 2021 which might be of interest to many of our readers as an attendee or as a speaker.

In the following interview, we sat down with Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, Director of Communications at DirectTrust where she shared details on DirectTrust and what people can expect at their upcoming event.

Tell us a little bit about DirectTrust.

DirectTrust is a non-profit membership alliance bringing together 100+ organizations and individuals across the healthcare spectrum who believe in secure and trusted health information exchange for improved patient care.

We came about as a result of “The Direct Project”, a grassroots public/private partnership focused on creating a simple and low-cost mechanism for healthcare interoperability. The goal was to enable both secure health data exchange and reliable communication among EHRs and other systems. This effort resulted in the Direct Standard™ for exchange, which was included as Direct Secure Messaging in the government incentive program referred to as “Meaningful Use” as well as EHR certification criteria in 2014 and beyond.  A trust community was needed to support the Direct Standard, and thus, DirectTrust was born in 2012, and entered into a cooperative agreement with the ONC in 2013 and 2014.

Today, DirectTrust is a thriving membership organization, ANSI-accredited Standards body, a trust framework supported by governance and policy, and an accreditor for reliable and trusted exchange across the DirectTrust network. Most continue to know us primarily as the organization supporting Direct Secure Messaging, frequently called Direct, or a variety of other names.

What are some of the milestones that DirectTrust has achieved as far as messaging and interoperability?

Sure! Our most recent milestone is the celebration of two billion – yes, billion with a B – Direct Secure Messages exchanged within the network from 2014-2020.  Notably, it took from 2014-Q2 2019 to reach one billion messages, and only eighteen months to reach two billion. The network is growing fast as more people realize how easy Direct is for securely transporting patient health information! It’s so easy in some EHRs and technology that clinicians don’t even realize that it’s behind the scenes making that exchange happen.

In other cases, organizations are intentionally choosing Direct as a way to send information because it’s so far reaching, accessible, and fast. With the pandemic, organizations obviously want to help fight COVID-19, so another behind-the-scenes milestone for us is the role we have been able to play in making COVID-19 data sharing possible.

For instance, the state of Arkansas and their HIE Arkansas SHARE has not only been sending COVID-19 positivity reports to primary care providers of their patients daily, no matter where tested, using Direct, but they now are further using Direct to send COVID-19 vaccination reports to providers daily.

The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) used Direct to send more than 22 million electronic Case Reports (eCR) related to COVID. Other organizations like Surescripts also used Direct to communicate millions of COVID-19 diagnoses and other critical information to public health agencies nationwide.

Other important milestones include enabling patients and consumers to use the network too! In 2020, more than half a million patients were able to engage in Direct.

How does DirectTrust approach healthcare interoperability and consensus building between various organizations?

Truly, the bedrock of DirectTrust is collaboration – it’s how we are able to have a trusted network, it’s how we are able to advance health IT Standards and make a true impact in healthcare. DirectTrust has become the meeting place for organizations to get together, roll up their sleeves, and tackle complex topics related to healthcare interoperability.

All participants come to the table with a “How can I help? How can I improve this?” mentality.  It doesn’t mean it’s always easy, but I do believe there is always the understanding that we are here to advance patient care, and hopefully make life a little easier on providers too in the process, which makes the heavy topics easy to take on.

It’s quite amazing to see competitors get together in a virtual room and work together.  It’s something I never take for granted, and obviously as a patient myself, am always so appreciative to see.  The members of DirectTrust and DirectTrust Standards deserve a tremendous amount of credit for the time and energy they provide to pushing interoperability forward.

Your DirectTrust Summit is coming up on June 9-10, 2021.  What can people expect at this event?  Who will they be able to virtually meet?

Attendees can expect for a lot of fun and interesting topics! We’re thrilled that Micky Tripathi is our first keynote speaker, and it will be incredible to hear what he has to say in his new role at the ONC. Additionally, we have some awesome panels in the works that we are excited to announce soon, as well as moving to shorter sessions (think TED-talk style) and some “Ask Me Anything” type question and answers. We’re also taking a nod from our friends at HITMC and rolling out some “Unconference” collaborative sessions where the attendees drive the conversation.

Pair the live sessions with our robust On Demand content library, a virtual Exhibit Hall, and virtual networking tables, and I think this year’s event is going to be extremely engaging and informative.

Our Call for Proposals is open through March 12, and we’re seeking a wide variety of voices and topics. Our Host Committee will review proposals received, and we will announce our full agenda in April.

Make sure you catch that early bird registration rate too!

Is DirectTrust Summit only for those doing Direct Messaging or will anyone interested in healthcare interoperability want to attend?

We welcome anyone with an interest in interoperability and health IT! In fact, this is probably one of the best events out there to “get your feet wet” understanding interoperability concepts because such a wide range of topics are covered.  The live sessions allow for question and answer, and the On Demand library is accessible at any time for a year post-Summit, so there’s an opportunity to dig in as much as you would want to.

What type of organizations should work with DirectTrust?  What can DirectTrust do for them?

First, we welcome anyone who wants to be involved! I love that we have several patients who participate in DirectTrust, and their voices and truly respected and valued by our membership.  Any organization or individual who has an interest in interoperability, secure and trusted health information exchange, trust framework, or identity-proofing concepts should really consider joining DirectTrust as a member.

Our Workgroups cover so many topics, there is something for everyone! DirectTrust provides the table for organizations to gather and influence direction or policy of DirectTrust and associated Standards or assets.  If you consider yourself a trailblazer or value innovation and collaboration, we want your voice at the table to help enhance and drive interoperability for better patient care.

What’s on the horizon for DirectTrust?

This question just gave me chills. There are so many positive initiatives in the works at DirectTrust that will truly impact and improve healthcare.

For instance, our Trusted Instant Messaging Plus (TIM+) Consensus Body is about to publish their second draft Standard. We now live in a world of instant communication, and there is definitely a need for consistency in that space in healthcare.  TIM+ is focused on creating a Standard so that, regardless of platform, healthcare entities can talk to each other and their patients in real-time, knowing their communication is secure, encrypted, and trusted. The “plus” of TIM+ also illustrates incorporating video and telehealth into this real-time communication. Over the past year of dealing with the pandemic, having a mature Standard like this could have been extremely impactful.

Recently, our FHIR Security and Trust Workgroup evolved to focus on Consumer Credentials in healthcare since a big part of the value DirectTrust offers is tied to identity-proofing and trust frameworks.  Our Patient and Consumer Participation Workgroup decided to join in while this new Workgroup gets established, so we have two powerhouse Workgroups converging to tackle this incredibly important topic.

Another example is our newly expanded Release of Information Workgroup, formed initially to see how the network might be used for Social Security Administration coverage requests. Health information exchange is not limited to between providers and health organizations – what if we could leverage interoperability and this expansive network to help safely and securely exchange health records that are pursuant to patient consent? This could be huge for keeping costs down, and delivering on the need for the right information in the patient or their designee’s hands as quickly as we can get it to them… we’re talking minutes, not days or weeks. Especially in light of increased attention on a patient’s right to access their health information and the speed at which that exchange might occur, using Direct Secure Messaging for ROI use cases could be a gamechanger.

The best advice I could give someone who is either interested or possibly impacted by the work DirectTrust members are doing is to join us! There are so many great opportunities for members to get involved and forge the future. If that isn’t in the cards for you right now, definitely follow us on social media channels like Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube so you’ll be the first to know of progress in current and the announcement of new initiatives, as well as educational opportunities.

I could not be more excited for what’s just on the horizon for DirectTrust!

Note: DirectTrust is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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