Direct Messaging

See the following -

VA Joins NATE and the Blue Button for Consumers (NBB4C) Trust Bundle

Press Release | National Association for Trusted Exchange | June 9, 2016

The National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) today welcomed its newest member, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). By joining NATE and participating in the NATE Blue Button for Consumers (NBB4C) Trust Bundle, VA is demonstrating its commitment to enabling its Veterans to send their health data to the consumer-facing application (CFA) of their choice. 

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A (Real-World) Tale of 6 Practices and 5 EMRs

We've all been there. Someone in our family (or ourselves) has a medical concern so schedules a primary care visit, gets some images or lab tests, and perhaps learns that surgery is needed. What starts as a fairly simple process can quickly turn into a near-comedy of inefficiency. My own recent story is typical...I invite you to learn how careMESH can take my above experience and make it all digital. We have exceptional knowledge workers in the healthcare industry and had any of the six medical groups in my story asked for a rating of their service, I would have given every one of them a 5 out of 5. They were all excellent, professional, timely, dedicated people and teams. So, let's empower them to communicate.

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Across the Border of Interoperability

Some electronic health record vendors are creating challenges for providers by restricting the kinds of Direct messages their customers can receive or making it hard to open their attachments. According to several sources, Epic Systems, the largest EHR company in the U.S., permits its users to receive only Direct messages that have clinical data architecture (CDA) attachments. Read More »

Axesson’s California Direct HISP Selects iBlueButton to Provide Patients with Mobile Access to Healthcare Records

Press Release | Humetrix, Axesson | July 22, 2014

Humetrix...today announced that its iBlueButton app has been selected by California Direct, to provide participating physicians with the means to securely transmit medical records to patients via their mobile devices. The addition of the iBlueButton app adds mobile capabilities to the California Direct offering for the first time, allowing patients to receive and carry their medical records and share them with doctors at the point of care.

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Does Healthcare Need a More Modern Way to Define and Measure EHR Interoperability?

Diana Manos | Healthcare IT News | August 18, 2016

Industry experts and the federal government are divided on the best way to assess the state of the nation’s health IT interoperability. The Office for the National Coordinator for Health IT, for instance, has proposed using CIO surveys to gauge the status of interoperability among and between healthcare organizations. To that end, ONC posted a Request for Information (RFI) on how to best assess interoperability that closed last month — just not before drawing some sharp comments from across the industry...

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Does Healthcare Need a More Modern Way to Define and Measure EHR Interoperability?

Diana Manos | Healthcare IT News | August 18, 2016

KLAS executive vice president Taylor Davis said that measuring interoperability can get messy because the EHR market is currently immature. Industry experts and the federal government are divided on the best way to assess the state of the nation’s health IT interoperability. The Office for the National Coordinator for Health IT, for instance, has proposed using CIO surveys to gauge the status of interoperability among and between healthcare organizations...

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DSS Inc Introduces Secure Direct Messaging to Improve Care Delivery for Hospitals and Health Systems

Press Release | Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS) | July 16, 2016

Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS), a leading provider of health information technology (HIT) solutions for federal, private and public healthcare organizations, today announced the availability of a Direct Messaging system that allows payers, providers and health systems to securely share information, replacing time consuming manual processes, reducing overhead costs and enhancing patient engagement. These new capabilities are integrated with DSS’ EHR system, vxVistA, through the Access My Records (AMR) Portal Suite...

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EHR Vendors Put Up Roadblocks to Direct Messaging

Half of U.S. health care providers now have access to Direct secure messaging through 36 health information service providers, according to DirectTrust, a not-for-profit trade association that accredits HISPs. Yet the policies of certain vendors are impeding physicians' and hospitals' ability to exchange Direct messages, HISPs and providers say. Read More »

EMR Direct Announces Availability Of Direct Project Secure Email Powered By phiMail™ In OpenEMR 4.1.2

Press Release | EMR Direct, OpenEMR | August 19, 2013

EMR Direct, a leading developer of software for the secure exchange of Protected Health Information (PHI) over the Internet, today announced the integration of its phiMail Direct messaging platform with the latest production release of OpenEMR, enabling users of the open source electronic health record software to send and receive Direct messages through their EHR system.  OpenEMR 4.1.2, released on August 17, is focused on enhanced interoperability, and the Direct messaging capabilities powered by phiMail are key to seamlessly exchanging clinical information with other healthcare providers for referrals and other transitions of care.  The functionality can be activated through hosted service or customer deployment of the phiMail Direct messaging software developed by EMR Direct. Read More »

EMR Direct Now Integrated with OpenEMR

is on a mission to modernize medical work flow and improve patient care by simplifying healthcare interoperability. The company is committed to developing technologies that protect patient privacy, improve the quality and coordination of care, increase productivity, and reduce costs. Recently, EMR Direct donated its code to OpenEMR which integrated their solution into OpenEMR version 4.1.2  They have also  announced their participation in the Tennessee Health eShare program, facilitating access to Direct messaging for healthcare providers across that state. Read More »

Fax Is Not a Machine, It Is a Technology

Once more I am listening to a presentation on interoperability. These always get a little uncomfortable - especially in the early going - because I can almost predict where the presenter will go horribly wrong and do a complete disservice to the audience (generally somewhere between slides 3 and 8). This time it was slide 6 where the speaker inserts stock picture of a decrepit old fax machine with paper cascading off a desk and onto the floor. This comes along with the typical lecture on everything that is wrong with "fax". With the lemmings in the audience nodding/snickering along, the speaker proceeds to misinform and mislead the group. Cringe-worthy really. What's misleading? Pretty much everything he says.

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Fax Technologies Take Center Stage at HIMSS19 Exhibition

One of the most surprising developments at HIMSS19 is the large number of companies exhibiting their Fax Technologies. Long derided by reporters, health IT consultants, and EHR vendors, fax technologies have been growing in leaps and bounds while EHRs continue to fail to deliver interoperability. Just a couple of years ago faxes were used in around 75% of medical records exchanges. Latest numbers indicate that faxes are now used to exchange more than 85% of medical records. Most people would react in horror to such figures. How could physicians and medical personnel rely on antiquated paper technologies like faxes? The real story to be found on the exhibit floor at the HIMSS 2019 conference is that what we are seeing is a rapid transition to digital fax technologies and platforms. And this transition is taking place because physicians and medical staff have figured out they work!

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Fax Technology is the Cornerstone of Interoperability. Here's Why.

Fax is the dominant information exchange technology in U.S. healthcare, outpacing secure direct messaging 25-to-1. Most of that is exchanged using inefficient and unsecure machines. With the emergence of cloud-based fax technology to facilitate secure system-to-system document transfer, the use of cloud fax needs to be part of every CTO's/CIO's digital strategy...The evolution of fax from paper-based to cloud transmission and storage - Cloud Fax Technology (CFT) - is a key step that enables providers to comply with HIPAA and other regulations. Further strengthening CFT as a key component in Healthcare Information Systems (HIS) is its evolution into Direct Messaging platforms, enabling the seamless exchange of Patient Health Information (PHI) between the diverse data and document management systems used by labs, pharmacies, doctor's offices, hospitals, and billing providers. CFT supports and contributes to the goal of interoperability...

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Health IT Interoperability Reimagined!

The evolution of fax from paper-based to cloud transmission and storage (CloudFax) is a key step that enables CloudFax providers to comply with HIPAA and other regulations. Further strengthening of CloudFax as a key component in Healthcare Information Systems (HIS) will be its evolution into a Direct Messaging platform that enables the seamless exchange of Patient Health Information (PHI) between the diverse data and document management systems used by labs, pharmacies, doctor's offices, hospitals, and billing providers. CloudFax will support and contribute to the goals of interoperability. Consider:

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Humetrix Calls for Burgess Interoperability Bill to Add Provider/Patient EHR Exchange

As a developer of several mobile personal health record applications, Humetrix supports Congressman Michael C. Burgess, MD, aim to accelerate electronic health record interoperability as expressed in his draft Health IT bill. We emphasize the need to facilitate health information exchange between providers and their patients, so that patients or their caregivers connect and exchange their personal health information with different providers as a key complement to efforts to improve health information exchange between provider systems.

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