DirectTrust: 2014 growth ‘far exceeded projections’

DirectTrust, a nonprofit that advances health data exchange via the Direct Protocol, announced growth in 2014 that “far exceeded projections.”

In 2014, the organization grew to include 38 Direct exchange health information service providers (HISPs), which provides services to more than 35,000 U.S. healthcare organizations with more than 660,000 individual Direct accounts. Overall, these providers were involved in nearly 23 million Direct exchange transactions, according to a release.

“We’ve experienced stunning growth on every level,” DirectTrust President and CEO David C. Kibbe, MD, said in a statement. “We’re talking about nearly a 10-fold increase in the number of healthcare organizations signed on to Direct. We are starting to see the business case for use of Direct for clinical and administrative information exchanges between federal- and private-sector providers and their organizations, as well.”

The organization anticipates more growth in 2015 among its core users, including medical practices, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies and laboratories. More federal agencies also are adopting Direct. HISPs from the Veterans Administration, U.S. Postal Services and Indian Health Services all have applied for DirectTrust-EHNAC accreditation, according to DirectTrust.