DirectTrust Founding President and CEO David C. Kibbe, MD, Stepping Down at Year-End

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2018 -- DirectTrust today announced that founding President and Chief Executive Officer, David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA, will step down at the end of the year.  The DirectTrust Board of Directors has launched a nationwide search for a successor. 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.

“On behalf of the entire Board, we thank David for leading DirectTrust through a remarkable period of formation and growth, positioning the organization as a powerful entity dedicated to the advancement of secure, interoperable exchange of health information,” said Paul Uhrig, DirectTrust Board Chair. “David is a visionary and pioneer in the field of health informatics. It has been a privilege and honor to work alongside him. As a result of his leadership, DirectTrust has established many important relationships with key stakeholders throughout the health information technology industry.” 

Dr. Kibbe led the establishment of DirectTrust in 2012. Under his leadership, DirectTrust has grown into a collaborative non-profit association of 121 health IT and health care provider organizations to support secure, interoperable health information exchange via the Direct message protocols.  A 25-year veteran of the healthcare IT industry, Dr. Kibbe was previously the founder of the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Center for Health IT, CEO of the innovative web-based care coordination software company Canopy Systems, and a family physician with 20 years’ experience in private and academic medical practice.  He was one of the early developers of the Continuity of Care Record, CCR, standard which was the precursor to the CCD-A and FHIR standards for computably formatted health data.

“I am truly honored to have had the privilege of working with such an extraordinarily talented, ethical, and committed team of professionals, and I have learned a great deal both technically and about collaboration during these six years,” said Dr. Kibbe.  “I’d like to thank the entire Board for their ongoing support as we worked closely together from the beginning to develop DirectTrust into the strong organization it is today. I will be leaving knowing that DirectTrust has a bright future ahead.”

After helping lead the transition to new executive management at DirectTrust later this year, Dr. Kibbe plans to remain professionally active in health IT, while also devoting more time to his family and his great passion, sailing.

Dr. Kibbe is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters on e-health, computer security and HIPAA. He is the co-author of The AMA’s Field Guide to HIPAA Implementation and is a frequent speaker on interoperability, privacy, security and identity management for diverse audiences across the nation.

He holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, an MD from Case-Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a BA from Harvard University. 

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. 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. 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 original Nationwide Health Information Network (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]