Patient/consumer use grows 45%
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DirectTrust today announced continued steady growth in the number of Direct exchange users, addresses, and transactions. The organization also announced the addition of two members during the third quarter. DirectTrust is a non-profit health care industry alliance created to support secure, identity-verified electronic exchanges of protected health information (PHI) between provider organizations, and between provider and patients, for the purpose of improved coordination of care.
According to end of third quarter 2018 metrics:
- The number of health care organizations served by DirectTrust health information service providers (HISPs) and engaged in Direct exchange increased 25% to more than 133,000, compared with the same time last year.
- The number of trusted Direct addresses able to share PHI grew nearly 15% to more than 1.8 million.
- The number of patients/consumers involved using Direct increased 45% to more than 260,000.
- There were 65.5 million Direct exchange transactions in the third quarter of 2018, an increase of 41% over the same period last year. The cumulative total of Direct exchange transactions climbed to nearly 497 million at the end of the third quarter.
- DirectTrust’s nationwide network now includes 36 HISPs in the Accredited Trust Anchor Bundle, 5 HISPs in the Governmental Trust Anchor Bundle, and 42 Accredited Organizations (HISPs/CAs/RAs).
Scott Stuewe, President and CEO of DirectTrust, commented: “The DirectTrust network continues to expand impressively, with significant growth in both accounts and especially transaction traffic. In fact, a closer look at our quarterly figures suggests an emerging trend with new use-cases for Direct exchange gaining traction as the average number of messages per Direct account jumped 25% in the last quarter.”
Two healthcare organizations joined DirectTrust during the third quarter:
American Academy of Dermatology – The American Academy of Dermatology, founded in 1938, is the largest, most influential and representative dermatology group in the United States.
Secure Health Information Technology - SecureHIT develops secure, scalable, standards-based technology that enables participants (including providers, laboratories, hospitals, pharmacies and patients) to send encrypted health information directly to cryptographically validated recipients over the Internet.
These additions bring DirectTrust’s total membership to 112 organizations.
Charts detailing results as of the end of the third quarter are available here or by contacting Ed Emerman at eemerman@eaglepr.com or 609.275.5162.
About DirectTrust
DirectTrust is a six-year-old, non-profit, vendor neutral, self-regulatory entity initially created by and for participants in the Direct community, including Health Internet Service Providers (HISPs), Certificate Authorities (CAs), Registration Authorities (RAs), doctors, patients and vendors, and supports both provider-to-provider as well as 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
eemerman@eaglepr.com