Program Helps Providers Enable Direct Messaging with EMR Direct phiMail and the DirectTrust Network

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- EMR Direct, a leading developer of software for the secure exchange of Protected Health Information (PHI) over the Internet, today announced its participation in the Tennessee Health eShare program, facilitating access to Direct messaging for healthcare providers in the state of Tennessee. Direct messaging provides a simple, secure way for providers to exchange health information over the Internet, and can be accessed through the phiMail Web mail service or through EHR integration.

"In addition to offering assistance to those acquiring a Direct account, the Office of eHealth Initiatives is offering a $500 incentive to each healthcare professional utilizing a HISP that participates in the DirectTrust Network," said Amanda King, Manager, Direct Project, Tennessee Health eShare.

Currently a DirectTrust accreditation candidate, EMR Direct was an early participant in the DirectTrust Network, the national scalable governance and interoperability framework for Direct messaging. "The DirectTrust Network enables broad interoperability between customers of EMR Direct and other participating HISPs across the United States by providing a framework for confidence in Direct Exchange based on established privacy and security standards," said Luis Maas, MD, PhD, CTO of EMR Direct and current co-chair of the DirectTrust Security and Trust Compliance workgroup.

EMR Direct's messaging services are powered by the phiMail Direct messaging platform, which was developed by EMR Direct to implement the Direct Project protocol for secure electronic transport. The Direct standard is required to meet three of the 2014 Meaningful Use EHR Certification criteria, and is useful in many other aspects of MU2 and for electronic healthcare communications in general. "Direct messaging is a preferred method for secure electronic data transport in the healthcare industry, and support for this technology must be included in EHR systems seeking Stage 2 Meaningful Use certification for Transitions of Care, Referral, or patient-initiated data transfer use cases," said Julie Maas, CEO of EMR Direct. "Our platform provides well-received, best-in-class options for solution providers, including rapid integration capability with our Direct messaging API and multi-platform connector libraries, ongoing active enhancement of the product based on customer feedback, extensive documentation, high-touch customer integration support, and industry-leading capabilities such as built-in support for separate signing and encryption keys and two factor authentication."

EMR Direct's versatile software architecture allows integrators and EHR vendors to quickly stand up their own Direct Messaging gateway or leverage EMR Direct's hosted service to immediately begin exchanging messages using the phiMail platform according to their preferred deployment model and integration framework, including the popular "no config" deployment option. phiMail can be used with or without an EMR, and is marketed to independent practitioners, large and small clinical practices, hospitals, other healthcare-related businesses, and healthcare IT companies such as EHR vendors and other application developers.

About EMR Direct
EMR Direct, a privately held healthcare IT company and health information service provider (HISP), is headquartered in San Diego, California, and provides Direct messaging products, Direct addresses, and, through its phiCert™ Certification Authority, the supporting public key infrastructure (PKI). With the goal of simplifying interoperability, EMR Direct delivers products that can be tailored to workflow and easily deployed by those who need to communicate, without requiring expensive, custom, peer-to-peer interfaces. EMR Direct is committed to developing technologies that protect patient privacy, improve the quality and coordination of care, increase productivity, and reduce costs. As part of this commitment, EMR Direct actively volunteers in numerous government-sponsored and industry workgroups to help refine, expand, and govern the use of Direct messaging. More information may be found at http://www.emrdirect.com. Healthcare providers and IT professionals may request evaluation software by registering for a developer or production account at http://www.emrdirect.com/subscribe.

About Health eShare
The Tennessee Health eShare Direct Project promotes the implementation of Direct secure messaging for the benefit of providers and patients. The Direct Project provides a simple way for healthcare professionals to send and receive authenticated, encrypted health information directly to known, trusted recipients over the Internet. Qsource is working with the Tennessee Office of eHealth Initiatives (OeHI) to implement and support Health eShare. For more information, visit: www.healthesharetn.com

About the Office of eHealth
The mission of the Tennessee Office of eHealth Initiatives (OeHI) is to facilitate improvements in Tennessee's healthcare quality, safety, transparency, efficiency and cost effectiveness through statewide adoption and use of electronic health records (EHR) and health information exchange (HIE). OeHI received grant funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to support the Direct Project and other projects to implement secure HIE. Through these stimulus funds, ARRA enables Tennessee the opportunity to advance the secure exchange of health information and to expand the adoption and meaningful use of EHRs and HIE. For more information, please visit: http://www.tn.gov/ehealth/

Trademark Notice: phiMail and phiCert are trademarks of EMR Direct.