For the second consecutive year, DirectTrust will receive computing credits and technical expertise from Amazon Web Services for the DirectTrust Directory Improvement Initiative

WASHINGTON, DC – May 20, 2024 – DirectTrust®, a non-profit healthcare industry alliance, standards development, and accreditation body focused on advancing trust in healthcare, today announced that it has been selected for the second-straight year as part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Health Equity Initiative, a $60 million, three-year commitment, supporting organizations that are developing solutions to advance health equity.

“The continued support from AWS will help us advance our efforts to launching a publicly available version of our DirectTrust Directory, which we believe will become a powerful tool for providers to find their referral partners and to supply additional information about their practices and capabilities,” said Scott Stuewe, President and CEO, DirectTrust. “Interoperability cannot happen until providers, care facilities, patients, and social services organizations can communicate and securely transmit information in real time. The DirectTrust Directory represents a giant step in that direction.”

The latest award will help expand the DirectTrust Directory to include elements of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and generative AI. The grant includes an eight-hour proof-of-concept build with AWS that will help DirectTrust determine whether the Directory changes are proceeding in the right direction. DirectTrust intends to leverage Amazon Q to support the Directory’s expansion, with additional add-ons running in DirectTrust’s Virtual Private Cloud. The goal of the DirectTrust Aggregated Directory is to build an interactive and publicly available mapping capability with a built-in chatbot that can answer most inquiries in real-time. This feature would enable the display of a robust map of healthcare providers based on the user’s basic searches.

“With the support of AWS, we have made significant strides over the past year to advance our updated Directory. The Health Equity Initiative is one visible sign that AWS values the role that nonprofits can play in the healthcare ecosystem,” added Alex Young, Director of Technical Operations, DirectTrust.

Through the initiative, AWS offers AWS credits and customized technical expertise to selected organizations around the world that want to use AWS services to improve health outcomes and health equity in any of the following areas: 1) Increasing access to high-quality, culturally responsive health services; 2) Increasing access to responsive social and community support; and 3) Mitigating the impact of climate change on health and quality of life.

“AWS believes individual health outcomes should not depend on socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or neighborhood,” said Danielle Morris, Global Health Equity Lead at AWS. “Cloud technology can help address inequities in global health to expand access to the services people need to live longer, healthier lives–no matter who they are or where they live. Through the AWS Health Equity Initiative, we look      forward to helping DirectTrust and other organizations worldwide use the power of cloud computing to advance health equity and improve health outcomes.”

To learn more about the AWS initiative, visit https://aws.amazon.com/health/health-equity.

About DirectTrust
DirectTrust® is a non-profit, vendor-neutral alliance dedicated to instilling trust in the exchange of health data. The organization serves as a forum for a consensus-driven community focused on health communication, an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards development organization, an accreditation and certification body through EHNAC (the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission), and a developer of trust frameworks and supportive services for secure information exchange like Direct Secure Messaging and trusted, compliant document submission.

The goal of DirectTrust is to develop, promote, and, as necessary, help enforce the rules and best practices necessary to maintain privacy, security, and trust for stakeholders across and beyond healthcare. In addition, DirectTrust is committed to fostering widespread public confidence in the interoperable exchange of health information while promoting quality service, innovation, cooperation, and open competition in healthcare. To learn more, visit: DirectTrust.org.