DirectTrust Continues Steady Growth in Number of Direct Exchange Users, Addresses and Transactions during First Quarter

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2018 -- DirectTrust today announced continued steady growth in the number of DirectTrust network users, addresses and transactions. The organization also announced the addition of four new members since the beginning of the year. DirectTrust is a non-profit health care industry alliance created to support secure, identity-verified electronic exchanges of personal health information (PHI) between provider organizations, and between provider and patients, for the purpose of improved coordination of care.

According to end of first quarter 2018 metrics, the number of health care organizations served by DirectTrust health information service providers (HISPs) and engaged in Direct exchange increased 19% to more than 112,000, compared with the same time last year. The number of trusted DirectTrust addresses able to share PHI grew 17% to nearly 1.7 million. The number of patients/consumers with DirectTrust addresses grew nearly 45% to 225,000. There were 47.8 million Direct exchange transactions in the first quarter of 2018, an increase of nearly 90% over the same period last year. DirectTrust’s nationwide network includes 36 HISPs in the Accredited Trust Anchor Bundle, 5 HISPs in the Governmental Trust Anchor Bundle, and 43 Accredited Organizations (HISPs/CAs/RAs).

“These are very encouraging results. The DirectTrust nationwide network continues to be depended upon for secure, interoperable communication of healthcare messaging and attachments. Despite the tremendous amount of attention being given to FHIR and APIs, the growth here is solid and reflects the value of electronic ‘push’ technology to replace fax and paper,” said DirectTrust President and CEO David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA.  “We are also noticing an uptick in patient/consumer involvement in Direct secure messaging, and improvements in EHR vendors’ software features and functions that make Direct more user-friendly for clinicians and their staffs.”

Since January 1, four healthcare organizations have joined DirectTrust. Among the new members are:

1. Indian Health Service - the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives
2. ReferralMD - the leading referral network management CRM for healthcare professionals; referral workflow, e-consults, messaging, patient access, provider directory search, and analytics
3. Trinity Health – among the largest multi-institutional Catholic healthcare delivery systems in U.S., serving diverse communities comprising more than 30 million people across 22 states.

These additions bring DirectTrust’s total membership to 117 organizations.

Charts detailing results as of the end of the first quarter are available here or by contacting Ed Emerman at [email protected] or 609.275.5162.

About DirectTrust
DirectTrust is a six-year old, non-profit, competitively neutral, self-regulatory entity initially created by and for participants in the Direct exchange community, including Health Internet Service Providers (HISPs), Certificate Authorities (CAs), Registration Authorities (RAs), doctors, patients and vendors. DirectTrust supports both provider-to-provider and patient-to-provider Direct exchange. In the period 2013 to 2015, DirectTrust was the recipient of a Cooperative Agreement Award from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as part of the Exemplar HIE Governance Program. DirectTrust serves as a forum and governance body for persons and entities engaged in the Direct exchange of electronic health information as part of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN). DirectTrust's Security and Trust Framework is the basis for the voluntary accreditation of service providers implementing Direct health information exchange. The goal of DirectTrust is to develop, promote, and, as necessary, help enforce the rules and best practices necessary to maintain security and trust within the Direct community, consistent with the HITECH Act and the governance rules for the NwHIN established by ONC. DirectTrust is committed to fostering widespread public confidence in the interoperable exchange of health information. To learn more, visit www.directtrust.org.

Contact:
Ed Emerman
Eagle Public Relations
609.275.5162
[email protected]