Wow, the 2021 DirectTrust Summit was incredible! With 38 speakers over two days, there was a lot of ground covered from the regulatory (Micky Tripathi), to the technical (Directory Panel), to patient and provider satisfaction (Rakesh Mathew), culminating in a patient experience story and resulting call to action (Morgan Gleason).
This year’s Summit was certainly fast paced because there was so much ground to cover in the health IT and interoperability space. Don’t believe me? Check out this quick recap video to get a glimpse into the amazing sessions and connections at this year’s Summit.
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Day 1 Recap
Wednesday June 9th kicked off with a great session from Micky Tripathi, new National Coordinator for Health IT, who outlined his wish list for the ONC and health IT community.
Then we heard from Rakesh Mathew about how a health system used Direct Secure Messaging for referrals to help drive patient loyalty and provider satisfaction, evidenced by the large increase in their Net Promoter Scores.
Next Dr. Daniel Jernigan from the CDC gave a wonderful overview of CDC’s data modernization initiative, noting that tech is only one part of the puzzle. Overall, CDC wants to put people at the center of their efforts.
Following a break to visit the virtual Exhibit Hall, we met with our first panel, moderated by Amit Trivedi, featuring Bob Dieterle, Lisa Nelson, and Alex Mugge discussing the opportunities and challenges of Directories.
Transitioning into breakouts and virtual networking tables, this year’s Summit featured an “Ask Me Anything” time. On Demand content from Jon Elwell, Dr. Jim Grue, Lisa Nelson, Kate McFadyen, Bronwen Huron, and Ed Simcox available to watch before the live event kicked off. Attendees could then visit with the individual speakers during this time and ask their questions.
After the breakout time, Jodi Daniel and Jim Flood from Crowell and Moring provided a Digital Health Update from DC, focusing on policy and regulatory updates the health IT community can expect during the new administration.
Wrapping up Day 1 was a demo of the Event Notifications via Direct Implementation Guide. Marc Wenger from Cerner, Keith Finlay from MaxMD, and Trey Fortes from eClinicalWorks showcased how an Admission/Discharge/Transfer (ADT) notification would work “in the real world” to close the day.
Day 2 Recap
Thursday June 10th was no less packed than the first day of the Summit.
First, we heard from Jordan Everson from the ONC on his research of how Direct Secure Messaging is used relative to other methods of exchanging health information. His session was a wonderful precursor to our second panel, featuring many of the national networks.
Wylecia Wiggs Harris, CEO of AHIMA, moderated a powerhouse panel including new CEO Alan Swenson from Carequality, Paul Wilder from CommonWell, Scott Stuewe from DirectTrust, Jay Nakashima from eHealth Exchange, and Lisa Bari from SHIEC. This incredible panel largely discussed the similarities and cooperation between networks.
After a break for the Exhibit Hall, we heard from Lee Barrett, Ryan Howells, and Luis Maas about UDAP and the need for third-party review to facilitate trust.
Following their presentation, attendees broke out into Unconference virtual networking tables to discuss topics like “What are the boundaries of interoperability?”, “How can we encourage providers to use the tools available to them?”, Social Determinants of Health, Direct and Information Blocking, and Patients/Consumers and Portal Credentials.
Subsequent to the many lively discussions, attendees came back together for more about what Project Unify (Brian Handspicker) and Open City Labs (Matt Bishop) are doing with Social Determinants of Health. They focused on how they are using Direct Secure Messaging to work towards and achieve their goals.
Next, we held our final panel moderated by Dr. Steven Lane and featuring Jitin Asnaani, Therasa Bell, Katherine Lusk, and Dr. Karen Smith about what’s next with ADT Notifications. Because this panel included two practicing family physicians, many real world examples were shared for attendees to feel the true impact of these notifications to the patient-provider relationship.
Closing out the 2021 DirectTrust Summit was a powerful Call to Action from patient advocate Morgan Gleason. She provided a slew of ideas of how health IT can assist in improving the patient experience, and more importantly, reminded us of why we all do what we do.
Thank you to our Sponsors and Exhibitors!
The DirectTrust Summit is only possible because of the generous support from Sponsors. This year’s platinum sponsors included Consensus, MedAllies, Secure Exchange Solutions, and Surescripts. Health Gorilla was a gold sponsor, and NextGen, Orion, and ReferralMD were bronze sponsors.
Additionally, this year’s event featured an awesome virtual Exhibit Hall, which many of our HISP vendors participated in. Thank you to our aforementioned sponsors, as well as DataMotion, EMR Direct, Inpriva, iShare Medical, and MaxMD for exhibiting!
Finally, thank you to Azuba, Kno2, and the VA for being Supporters of the Summit.
What do you want to see next year?
This year’s Summit was a blast, and believe it or not, we are already planning the 2022 DirectTrust Summit! Tell us, what and who do you want to see there? We can’t wait to see you at the next DirectTrust Summit!