CHIME will work with DirectTrust to advocate the deployment of the DirectTrust framework and health information exchange network as the universal common electronic interface for health information exchange.

The healthcare CIO association announced the collaboration with DirectTrust on Wednesday.

DirectTrust is a healthcare industry alliance for participants in the Direct exchange network. It is used for secure, interoperable exchange of personal health information between provider organizations and between providers and patients.

[Also: Using both Direct and FHIR standards could improve data exchange]

There are other similar frameworks for data exchange in place, including CareQuality and CommonWell Health Alliance.

CHIME and DirectTrust are working together to promote and ensure that secure, interoperable exchange of healthcare information via Direct exchange is available and able to be used at every location in the healthcare system where a patient’s data and information might be needed.

The effort includes making Direct exchange universally available at hospitals, medical practices, pharmacies, labs, long-term care facilities, payers, insurers and health departments, as well as on applications. 

“There is great potential in our new collaboration to further standardize and simplify health information exchange interfaces on a national basis for an expanded variety of use cases,” DirectTrust CEO and President David C. Kibbe, MD, said in a statement.

Kibbe adds that DirectTrust’s network is the largest standards-based network for the exchange of health information, with more than 1.5 million send and receive endpoints, at more than 100,000 healthcare organizations, via more than 350 ONC-certified EHRs.

CHIME CEO and President Russell P. Branzell said CHIME members strongly support the further development of a standards-based national platform to safely and securely exchange patient data

“DirectTrust offers an infrastructure that goes hand-in-hand with our goals to assist and lead where needed to improve patient care, engage patients in their health and reduce patient safety incidents,” he said in a statement.

“The National Patient ID Challenge, which we launched to accurately and safely identify patients no matter what the healthcare setting, is a perfect example of these needs that require a strong national exchange infrastructure.”

As Kibbe sees it, the value of a simple secure and reliable means of exchange of health data and information is a necessary step forward in attaining the goals of interoperability.

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com