By Kathryn Ayers Wickenhauser, Chief Strategy Officer
A new year means a fresh start and a natural opportunity to look at what’s ahead. We are particularly excited for the DirectTrust Annual Conference scheduled for August 4-7 in St. Louis. Last year’s conference brought healthcare stakeholders together from across the country to discuss “The Future of Trust in Health.” Throughout the event, three themes consistently came up: interoperability, identity, and cybersecurity.
Each of these areas is incredibly important to the health technology ecosystem, with a great deal of complexity, science, and art within each. However, these topics also have a common intersection, one that we at DirectTrust care very deeply about: trust. DirectTrust truly lives and thrives at the intersection of these three areas. That is why this year’s annual conference theme is “The Intersection of Interoperability, Identity, and Cybersecurity,” providing opportunity to explore these topics individually as well as how they interrelate.
Interoperability: With a Little Help From My Friends
DirectTrust’s history starts with interoperability, and the critical components needed to make it work. Direct Secure Messaging continues to grow, as does interoperability in general.
One of my favorite aspects of DirectTrust is the community, seeing organizations who may compete come together under the umbrella of DirectTrust to solve common problems. This broadens beyond DirectTrust. There is certainly a friendship feeling within the interoperability space, one that I think is aptly summarized by the moniker of “Team Interop.” We may champion different methods and solutions to interoperability, but we are all committed to fast, easy, and usable information exchange to help clinicians care for patients.
As interoperability evolves and TEFCA® gains momentum, both long-standing challenges and new opportunities are emerging. How do we know and trust those parties we exchange information with? How do we expand the information sharing that already exists? What new uses of interoperability can we deploy? How do we make the data we share more usable, more impactful? How do we ensure we are providing data that augments clinical care, and doesn’t burden it? These are some of the topics I expect will be tackled at the annual conference related to interoperability.
Identity: Me, Myself, and I
Digital identity plays a pivotal role in secure and trusted data exchange, evolving alongside advancements in interoperability. As a trust framework, DirectTrust has established policy and governance for identity-proofing that is the foundation of trusted Direct Secure Messaging and the DirectTrust network for exchange. While Direct Secure Messaging is focused on push-based interoperability (I know you need this information, and I send it to you), these same concepts can be used for other methods of interop like query and FHIR®.
Identity is a foundational part to interoperability, and DirectTrust oversees certificate issuance tied to identity and interoperability in multiple ecosystems. In the simplest terms, when an identity (individual or organization) is vetted through identity-proofing standards, they are issued a digital certificate validating their identity. Other parties can reference the certificate to “know and trust” the endpoint is who they say they are. Even though there are different methods of interoperability, this identity-verification piece is a foundational component to making it work on a large scale. Because of our identity and technical trust experience, DirectTrust has roles in certificate issuance in the Direct Secure Messaging, query, and Facilitated FHIR under TEFCA environments.
Identity is also a complex topic, with different approaches and considerations. I expect there will be a lot of lively discussion and consideration regarding identity at the DirectTrust annual conference, especially regarding trust.
Cybersecurity: The Times They Are A-Changin’
Perhaps in a tie with AI, it feels like the hot topic of the year for the healthcare industry was cybersecurity. While not a new issue, we live in an increasingly connected world, which means new and continuously evolving opportunities for cyberattacks. From the outside looking in, there seems to be significant disagreement about how to proceed to protect the health ecosystem. However, talking to practitioners like CISOs, it’s clear that there is a significant amount of collaboration happening. There are many organizations, including DirectTrust, who convene organizations to address cybersecurity issues unique to our corner of the world. However, there are also larger groups working on pulling all of these pieces together to move forward with industry best practices.
There will continue to be a significant focus on cybersecurity at the DirectTrust annual conference, including an encore to last year’s popular CISO Roundtable. CISOs and similar roles gathered to share knowledge through a tabletop exercise, and then key takeaways were shared with the larger conference audience through a separate panel. The conversation won’t end there as we look forward to gathering individuals together to continue to discuss and produce actionable takeaways.
The Trust Intersection: Three Little Birds
While individually unique, the topics of interoperability, identity, and cybersecurity all have a common through-line of trust. Often, these areas are looked at individually, or in relation with one another. We would argue, however, that the magic happens when you look at the intersection of the three; where interop, identity, and cybersecurity harmonize around trust is powerful. The growth and evolution happens here, which is what we are excited to bring into focus at the DirectTrust Annual Conference.
Into the Unknown
While there is a lot unknown about the future right now, there is abundant clarity around what topics will continue to be critical. Interoperability, identity, cybersecurity and their intersection regarding the all-important trust are only areas which will continue to grow.
We know there will be an Administration change in 2025, but it remains to be seen how it will impact health technology. If the prediction of a deregulated environment comes to fruition, it is likely going to be more important for the nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations of our industry to help carry forth the trust mantle. This conference gathering presents a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with peers about how we want to continue to shape the future. Please join us!
Will You “Meet Me in St. Louis”?
I am thrilled to welcome our health tech community back to my hometown of St. Louis for our 2025 Annual Conference. Join us August 4-7 at Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark as we collaborate on the intersection of interoperability, identity, and cybersecurity. Our Super Early Bird registration will open soon!
Learn more about our 2025 event here: DirectTrust.org/conference.