MaxMD CTO Bruce Schreiber Named Board Chair WASHINGTON, July 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DirectTrust today announced the appointment of five health care industry executives to its board of directors. DirectTrust is a non-profit health care industry alliance created to support secure, identity-verified electronic exchanges of protected health information (PHI) between provider organizations, and between provider and patients, for the purpose of improved coordination of care.

The new DirectTrust board members are: Adam Apatoff – General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Secure Exchange Solutions. Apatoff has 20 years of experience in the health information exchange and technology sector advising in private law practice. Sameer Badlani, MD, FACP – System Vice President, Chief Health Information Officer (CHIO), and interim Chief Data Officer with Sutter Health. Previously, Dr. Badlani was CHIO for Intermountain Healthcare and held a board position with Utah Health Information Network (UHIN). Anupam Goel , MD, MBA – Physician Informaticist over Emerging Technologies, Innovation and Research at Advocate Aurora Health. Dr. Goel has tested Direct messaging with providers and patients to share PHI across organizational boundaries. Andy Heeren – Senior Director of Network Development at Cerner Corporation. Heeren is an experienced board member who is being nominated for another term after serving as a non-voting member of the board for 12 months. Heeren was instrumental in creating the first Federated Services Agreement and the first formal Strategic Plan for DirectTrust. Julie Maas – President and CEO of EMR Direct. Maas has been a long-time contributor to technical and policy discussions within DirectTrust workgroups for the past five years, and in interoperability forums across the industry.

“We are pleased to have Adam, Sameer, Anupam, Andy, and Julie adding their tremendous experience and knowledge to our talented board of directors,” said David Kibbe, MD, MBA, President and CEO of DirectTrust. “All are highly-regarded leaders and innovators in health care information exchange, and knowledgeable across a broad range of technology issues. As such, they will be invaluable to our board and our members, as they seek innovative ways for health care professionals, health IT vendors, and their patients and customers communicate safely and securely. We look forward to their contributions.”

Additionally, Bruce Schreiber was appointed new board chairman, replacing Paul Uhrig. Schreiber, Chief Technology Officer at MaxMD, has been involved with Direct since participating in the Direct Project Rules of the Road workgroup in 2010. He has actively supported the formation and growth of DirectTrust through his participation on 12 workgroups. His firm, MaxMD, was a beta site for the initial EHNAC accreditation process.  Schreiber will continue to work on the advancement of Direct through his leadership and participation in DirectTrust workgroups.

Uhrig, Surescripts Chief Administrative, Legal and Privacy Officer, joins DirectTrust Emeritus Directors John Blair, III, MD, FACS, CEO of MedAllies; Leslie Kelly Hall, an advocate of patient engagement and consumer empowerment through health information technology (HIT) with 25 years in HIT executive leadership; and Scott Rea, Senior Vice President-Public Key Infrastructure at DarkMatter.

Dan Paoletti was named treasurer. Paoletti is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ohio Health Information Partnership. With more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry, his sales, management and health information technology expertise have influenced the start-up and success of DirectTrust. About DirectTrust DirectTrust is a six-year old, non-profit, competitively neutral, self-regulatory entity initially created by and for participants in the Direct exchange community, including Health Internet Service Providers (HISPs), Certificate Authorities (CAs), Registration Authorities (RAs), doctors, patients and vendors. DirectTrust supports both provider-provider and provider-patient Direct exchange. In the period 2013 to 2015, DirectTrust was the recipient of a Cooperative Agreement Award from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as part of the Exemplar HIE Governance Program. DirectTrust serves as a forum and governance body for persons and entities engaged in the Direct exchange of electronic health information as part of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN). DirectTrust's Security and Trust Framework is the basis for the voluntary accreditation of service providers implementing Direct health information exchange. The goal of DirectTrust is to develop, promote, and, as necessary, help enforce the rules and best practices necessary to maintain security and trust within the Direct community, consistent with the HITECH Act and the governance rules for the NwHIN established by ONC. DirectTrust is committed to fostering widespread public confidence in the interoperable exchange of health information. To learn more, visit www.directtrust.org .

Contact Ed Emerman Eagle Public Relations 609.275.5162 eemerman@eaglepr.com