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Ensuring the secure and efficient exchange of sensitive information including medical records, Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI) is crucial to meet the diverse needs of the healthcare ecosystem, which includes a wide range of participants including payers, providers, social services, and long-term care facilities. However, the presence of disparate systems among these organizations increases interoperability challenges. That’s where DataMotion, a leading provider of secure data exchange and HISP (Health Information Service Provider) services, comes into play, uniquely equipped to overcome these challenges.

As a founding member of DirectTrust™ with over two decades of experience providing secure data exchange solutions, we have worked on some of the most demanding, high-volume projects in healthcare and other regulated industries. Clients turn to us to establish connections and streamline their operations, facilitating simple and secure digital communication channels within their familiar applications. We understand the intricate demands of healthcare organizations and regulated industries, tailoring our solutions to meet their specific requirements.

Clinical data exchange and interoperability are crucial for delivering timely and accurate patient care, streamlining operations, reducing costs and complying with stringent regulations. However, due to the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders, including payors, providers, public health organizations, and community-based organizations (CBOs), the healthcare industry faces unique challenges in achieving these goals. Across the ecosystem, it’s understood that protecting patient PHI is a critical necessity, yet that data must be securely exchanged in such a way that it can be easily accessed to monitor disease outbreaks, coordinate care and services for vulnerable populations, and make informed decisions about patient care in real-time. In this complex landscape, establishing secure and interoperable data exchange between these systems is a difficult balance to strike, especially when each stakeholder often has different technologies and security protocols in place. To address these challenges, DataMotion plays a critical role in facilitating secure data exchange and interoperability.

DataMotion’s accredited HISP, Certificate Authority (CA), and Registration Authority (RA) services ensure seamless, secure data exchange for key stakeholders and signify that we have met the rigorous requirements for data security and privacy set forth by DirectTrust. Additionally, our CA and RA accreditations allow us to issue and manage digital certificates – simplifying identity verification and establishing a robust, secure, and trustworthy framework for clinical exchange. This framework allows DataMotion to enroll patients on the DirectTrust network in a cost-effective & scalable manner allowing them to exchange healthcare information with their providers.

Our innovative approach allows payers, providers, patients and the care community to engage with the secure data exchange process in ways that are most natural to them. Leveraging full lifecycle RESTful APIs, secure standards-based protocols, and a trust no one, trust nothing design, we enable simple and secure PHI exchange across diverse healthcare systems, including electronic health records (EHRs), patient portals, and contact center systems. Stakeholders benefit from reduced administrative burdens and increased employee productivity, more efficient collaboration and care coordination with external partners, and improved patient outcomes. By facilitating easy participation, DataMotion helps organizations streamline their workflows and enhance collaboration without compromising on security.

To ensure system performance and availability, we deliver a comprehensive suite of features, including analytics and reporting to enable message tracking and provide insights into system performance. With 24/7 network monitoring, testing, and support services, as well as a 99.9% uptime with built-in redundancies, we ensure operations are always up and running smoothly. Our robust technology eliminates data loss and accelerates data exchange, ensuring that providers and patients experience seamless and secure PHI exchange. Moreover, our expert monitoring of overall HISP communications detects, reports, and resolves issues, providing a safe and secure data exchange experience.

The DataMotion Platform is designed for nationwide scale, as proven during the COVID-19 pandemic response, to exchange millions of electronic case report (eCR) documents and corresponding reports between the nation’s hospitals and public and private health departments. The platform scaled to handle more than 2 million records per day.

DataMotion’s expertise extends beyond healthcare, with a proven track record in financial services and government sectors. This cross-industry experience allows us to bring a more robust, holistic, and modern approach to clients’ digital modernization efforts. By understanding the unique challenges faced by each sector, DataMotion offers tailored solutions that address industry-specific needs.

DataMotion’s commitment to providing secure data exchange solutions for regulated industries has made us a trusted leader in the healthcare space. Our comprehensive suite of APIs and connectors enable payers and providers to integrate HIPAA-compliant secure messaging into their applications and workflows. With our vast experience, modern approach, and comprehensive services, DataMotion is the ideal partner for organizations seeking to achieve digital modernization while maintaining the highest security and compliance standards.­

Discover how DataMotion enhances collaboration, streamlines operations, and promotes better health outcomes without compromising on security by visiting our solutions page or contacting our team of experts today. Stay up to date on the latest industry tips, tricks, and best practices for secure exchange by subscribing to our monthly newsletter.

Team DataMotion will be on-site and ready to talk with you about your secure workflows and customer experiences. If your enterprise deals with sensitive PII or PHI like client financial data, social security numbers, or any other confidential information, visit our booth to learn how you can easily and securely exchange this data right from your existing workflows – while leveraging our military-grade encryption and zero-trust design. We will be showcasing how our solutions, such as our secure message center, use our APIs, no-code web component, and other connectors to integrate into enterprise systems, including:

• CRM and contact center systems (Genesys and Salesforce)
• Employee and client-facing mobile apps and portals
• Email clients (Microsoft Outlook and Gmail)
• Identity providers (Okta, Microsoft, and Azure AD)
• Other enterprise applications and workflows (Microsoft Teams, Power Automate)

We can’t wait to meet you at Enterprise Connect! Make sure to visit us at Booth 1643 or schedule a meeting ahead of time to chat with one of our team members. Finally, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to keep up with us at the event. See you in Orlando! 😎

Not attending Enterprise Connect but still want to learn more about DataMotion? Check out these related reads:

• What Exactly is an Identity Provider (IdP)?
• What is DataMotion’s No-Code Experience?
• Use Cases for the Secure Message Center
• DataMotion Integrations

As 2022 wraps up, Team DataMotion is reflecting on another incredible year. From launching new products and services, to expanding our customer base and team – 2022 has been a year of innovation and growth. Looking back on the past 12 months, we’re grateful for our amazing customers, talented team, and all of those who’ve supported us along the way. Join us as we unwrap the year’s top moments and look ahead to what’s in store for the future.

1. We introduced our No-Code Experience, which is designed for simplicity and timely deployment. DataMotion CEO Bob Janacek reflects on the reasons why the engineering team was motivated to develop a no-code solution:

“…in looking at market conditions, it is obvious that the impact of the ‘Great Resignation’ has stretched our customers’ development resources too thin. The team at DataMotion stepped back…and concluded that our best approach was to develop the No-Code Experience. This experience brings the solution to market quickly, and results in compliance wins immediately” (DataMotion Launches No-Code Experience for Simple Secure Data Exchange).

Learn more about no-code development, its benefits, and use cases through our eBook, No-Code Development: Unlocking Your Digital Potential.

2. We hosted our first hackathon to promote teamwork and challenge participants to develop innovative solutions using the DataMotion Platform – the successful event helped to drive ideas for some of our next generation features! The fun continued post hackathon as participants teamed up to beat Morristown’s Trapdoor Escape Room. We look forward to another great hackathon in 2023.

3. We traveled to the Civitas Networks for Health Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Team DataMotion networked with colleagues to discuss the value DataMotion brings to public health agencies and others across the healthcare ecosystem. Sales team member Doug Rubino said,

“DataMotion has led the industry in secure and compliant exchange for over 20 years. Our secure message center enables the frictionless, secure, and compliant flow of sensitive information among disparate individuals and organizations. Within healthcare, we also operate as a Health Information Service Provider (HISP) where our platform serves as an on-ramp for the DirectTrust Network…The Civitas conference has always been a favorite of mine and this year’s event did not disappoint”.

4. We featured our secure message center in a video series. Subject matter expert Christian Grunkemeyer provides an overview of the secure message center and reviews a real-life use case of the product in action:

a. Part 1 – Introducing DataMotion’s Secure Message Center

b. Part 2 – Security, Compliance, and Ease of Use: Meet the Secure Message Center

5. We attended the National HIMSS Conference which joins together peers and experts to develop and learn from the relationship of health and technology. DataMotion’s Director of Sales Success said,

“DataMotion is at the forefront of helping health insurance payors communicate seamlessly and securely with their members through secure, natural, familiar ways of communication. Digital communications via chat, email, and document sharing applications have become rapidly normalized, and will continue to expand in the coming years”.

As we look forward to 2023, Team DataMotion is thankful for the successes of the past year and the support of our customers and team. 2022 was incredible, and we’re excited to continue building on these successes in the next year. Customers can expect:

1. Next Generation Secure Forms: No-code builders to easily develop, publish, and distribute secure forms. The secure forms allow for an unauthenticated response, providing bi-directional communication over any channel.
2. DataMotion Integration Gateway: Create connections to the enterprise systems our customers use daily – providing seamless secure communication.
3. Workflow Builder: Provides enterprises with the ability to route and map content, and pre and post process content for their unique workflows.
4. Secure File Sharing and Collaboration: Securely exchange and collaborate on one or more files with internal or external organizations.
5. Reporting and Analytics: A data warehouse to provide users with reports and dashboards with tracking and key metrics surrounding their secure content exchange.

Before you wrap up the year, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. In addition, subscribe to our monthly newsletter for industry insights, thought leadership, and DataMotion updates.

Here’s to an even brighter future!

DataMotion is pleased to introduce our new Developer Advocate, Janelle Phalon. Janelle recently switched careers, coming to DataMotion from the education field. In this interview, Janelle shared a little about herself and her background, her new role, switching careers, and why she is excited to be part of Team DataMotion.

Team DataMotion: Janelle, thanks for your time, and welcome to the team! It’s great to have you here. Tell us a little about your background and how you come to DataMotion.

Janelle Phalon: I want to start by thanking the DataMotion team for the warm welcome. I am excited to be here and happy to shed some light on my role as Developer Advocate. I have a dual degree in Secondary Education and English Literature from William Paterson University, and decided to pursue a career as a teacher. My students’ innate ability to learn inspired me to pick up new skills, which helped me discover my passion for coding. I enrolled in Columbia Engineering’s Coding Bootcamp and completed the course while teaching, earning the title of Full-Stack Developer. This led me to DataMotion as the company’s Developer Advocate.

DM: One interesting aspect of your story is that you came to DataMotion as the result of a career switch. What drew you to the tech industry?

JP: When the pandemic struck, the education field as a whole was forced to adopt new norms. The traditional task of delivering classroom instruction became complex as both teachers and students adjusted to remote learning. This digital transition highlighted the lack of resources available to create engaging lessons, and the scarcity of online teaching tools sparked a new level of creativity within me. I began to compile innovative, simple solutions to everyday challenges – and was driven to develop the programming skills necessary to bring my ideas to life. This pushed me to enroll in Bootcamp, which significantly altered the trajectory of my career.

Starting fresh in a new field isn’t easy, but neither is passing up the opportunity to join an amazing team like DataMotion. The staff works together to create a climate that promotes growth, curiosity, and teamwork – the ideal environment for someone looking to further develop and strengthen their skills.

DM: The role of Developer Advocate is emerging across the industry—could you tell us a little about what a Developer Advocate does?

JP: Although the role does not have a clear definition across companies, all interpretations share the same idea – to empower and support a developer community. We help to bridge the gap between an organization’s internal teams and developers, providing both with helpful feedback to improve their practice. Additionally, an advocate will:

• Continuously educate themselves on popular technologies across the developer community
• Create technical, dev-focused content to aid success with their company’s software
• Engage with developers on Twitter, GitHub, LinkedIn, Stack Overflow, etc., building rapport and providing support as needed

DM: What elements of this role are you most excited about and what do you hope to accomplish?

JP: Teaching and being a Developer Advocate share many similarities, including educating and fostering discussion within a community. I am most excited to continue practicing these skills at DataMotion. My goal as our Developer Advocate is to create high-quality, tech-focused content that supports developers using our APIs. I plan to educate my audience on the DataMotion platform, highlighting the versatility and simplicity of our technologies.

DM: When you meet with a development team, how do you describe what it is we do here at DataMotion, and how our solutions benefit dev teams?

JP: I start by briefly explaining the functionality of our platform – DataMotion APIs and pre-built solutions enable the compliant, secure, bi-directional exchange of data between an organization and their customers and patients, as well as their internal teams. While security is important, I also speak to the ease of use our platform offers, which is a true differentiator from other solutions on the market.

I make sure to speak a bit more about our security, which includes not only military-grade encryption and a governed database, but an overall zero-trust security approach. In short, the DataMotion platform makes implementing and maintaining secure exchange capabilities easy for dev teams.

DM: You just made a great point about differentiators. There are many secure messaging, document, and email exchange solutions on the market. In fact, we’re often called in to simplify the processes involved in those secure send workflows. What are the differentiators that set DataMotion’s services apart from other vendors?

JP: Aside from the ease of use for enterprise staff and their customers, I would say the flexibility and scalability our platform provides are the major differentiators. We meet our customers where they need secure exchange, and make implementation as simple and straightforward as possible, easily integrating into existing workflows. And today’s requirements might not quite align with where an enterprise is tomorrow. This is where DataMotion’s scalability comes in, easily allowing enterprises to meet their future needs, whether it is increasing secure message exchanges or solving additional use cases. The DataMotion team and its customers share a common goal, which sets us apart from other vendors – to easily, and effectively improve the user experience.

DM: Tell us about an interesting project you have worked on.

JP: In Bootcamp I collaborated with classmates to build a full-stack application that helped connect “inventors” and developers. The communication platform targeted two groups – users who have strong ideas but insufficient programming knowledge, and developers looking for work. “Inventors” can share ideas to a newsfeed that developers access in search of projects that fit their interests or skills. Some technologies we utilized include JavaScript, CSS, MySQL, Handlebars, Bcrypt, and Postmark. Overall, the project was a success. What we lacked, however, was a secure message center for confidential, bidirectional communication between parties. Now that I have knowledge of DataMotion’s secure message center API, this sounds like something I should revisit!

DM: Tell us about your experience at DataMotion so far, and your favorite part of being on the team? (Besides the coffee and espresso machine, of course.)

JP: My overall experience has been phenomenal–the DataMotion team welcomed me with open arms. Both the staff and leadership team have been incredibly helpful and have eased my transition into tech. I’ve already gained new perspective from listening to the company-wide team of subject matter experts and industry leaders. Besides the beanbag chairs and M&M dispenser, my favorite part of joining the team is having the opportunity to learn every day. I am encouraged to ask questions, conduct research, and collaborate with teammates to help find success.

DM: Lastly, what is your advice for others who are looking to switch careers and jump into a new industry?

JP: For anyone considering a career change, reflect on the following quote by George Eliot, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” When I first began to digest the idea of switching fields, I was hesitant to leave the comforts of teaching. I had an established, successful career that provided stability in my life. However, the quote by Eliot helped to shift my mindset and just go for it!

DM: Janelle, thanks for your time. And again, welcome to Team DataMotion!

JP: No problem. I appreciate you taking time to speak with me! If any readers are still curious about Developer Advocacy, feel free to reach out via Twitter (@dev_janelle) or LinkedIn to continue the conversation!

Enabling customers to easily and efficiently build secure exchange into their workflows is core to DataMotion’s values. Over the past year market conditions and a constraint on development resources among customers prompted our team to take a step back. To address these challenges, we introduced our new No-Code Experience to provide enterprises a simple and straightforward way to access the DataMotion Platform to embed secure exchange within their workflows. This approach enables us to meet our customers where and when they need secure messaging and document exchange, regardless of available development resources.

As the name implies, the no-code advancement is not just for developers or those with coding skills. Industry experts anticipate that half of those who leverage this development process will be individuals outside of the traditional IT department—likely making it part of your future whether you’re a developer or not. To this end, we’ll explore the basics of no-code, its benefits, where it fits into application development, and DataMotion’s role in the No-Code Revolution.

As defined by TechTarget, no-code is a “software development approach that requires few, if any, programming skills…and instead take[s] a visual approach to software development to enable rapid delivery.” In other words, no-code development uses only a few lines of code to integrate a solution into a user’s front end. The result is an application development process that is so easy that even those with no software development skills can easily build a custom solution. Simply drag a few elements onto your workspace, adjust some settings, and you’re done. This is the very model of ease of use DataMotion is bringing to the enterprise.

‘Ease of use’ is referred to in the context of the employee and client user experience and the ability to easily log in to an application or portal for secure document and message exchange. No-code expands this concept, applying to the implementation (not just the use) of a simple and secure experience which can be executed by anyone on your team, developer or not.

Learn more about DataMotion’s No-Code Experience and how to embed our web component within your mobile app or portal.

No-code development is designed for simplicity and timely deployment. In fact, the phrase people use most often to describe low-code/no-code solutions is “ease of use.” The development practice’s straightforward attributes provide several benefits, including:

• Speed: Developing a solution from scratch can take up to a year or more. No-code applications allow quick implementations and reduce development time by 90%.
• Convenience: No-code makes it easy for those without development expertise (and even easier for those with coding skills) to implement solutions, regardless of available resources.
• Customization: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions offer few customization opportunities. Conversely, no-code development offers many, providing both customizable and ready-to-use solutions with simple systems/workflows integration.
• Security and Compliance: DataMotion’s no-code solutions employ ironclad security methods, including military-grade encryption and a zero-trust policy. We perform rigorous security testing and acquire third-party validations so you don’t have to.

SaaS, no-code, and solutions built using traditional development all share common benefits and have their own drawbacks – read more about them here.

Team DataMotion recently attended the Civitas Networks for Health 2022 Annual Conference, a Collaboration with the DirectTrust™ Summit, in San Antonio. Once onsite, it was three days of all things healthcare IT, interoperability and secure exchange. Our team attended panel sessions and had numerous conversations with folks across the ecosystem. As a result, our group gathered new learnings and fresh insights; we’ve collected their takeaways into this article for easy access.

Health Data Utilities: A New Pillar of Public Health “HDUs act as a public health intermediary, receiving, normalizing, aggregating, de-identifying, and disseminating actionable data in real time.“ In this entry to the DataMotion Blog, Doug Rubino shares a few words about health data utilities, and how this emerging concept can help revolutionize interoperability between public health agencies and other areas of the healthcare sector.

Using Existing Infrastructure to Advance Health Equity: Use Cases from Civitas 2022 “While it’s hard to fundamentally change how we envision healthcare today, [the future of health interoperability] is something for which we have already built the groundwork.” Innovation moves fast in the healthcare ecosystem and in this article, Christian Grunkemeyer discusses concrete examples of how creatively leveraging existing infrastructure (e.g., Direct Secure Messaging) can help achieve improved interoperability and better health equity.

Overheard at Civitas 2022: Snippets from San Antonio “Data, interoperability, and community are key to health equity.” In this blog entry, Sarah Parks offers a glimpse into some of the event “overheards” around public health, interoperability, innovation, and more.

While this year’s event has wrapped up, secure and compliant exchange challenges last year-round. Learn more about how DataMotion can help your healthcare organization easily, securely, and compliantly transmit sensitive information by setting up an intro call with our team:

• Doug Rubino
• Christian Grunkemeyer

We’d like to thank Civitas Networks for Health and DirectTrust for an outstanding event, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone next year!

Dear Diary,

I was so excited to attend the Civitas Networks for Health 2022 Annual Conference, a Collaboration with the DirectTrust™ Summit! Upon arriving in San Antonio, I was fully prepared for discussions about how the nation is expanding the usage of Direct Secure Messaging, and how DataMotion fits into that expansion. As the leader in secure exchange for over 20 years, DataMotion has served as a HISP for more than 10 of those years, enabling frictionless, secure, and compliant communications between disparate endpoints across the healthcare ecosystem. Our team is highly interested in how we can continuously innovate; as a strategic partner to healthcare organizations, our customers share how they are using existing technology, what they are seeking to do next, and how we can help them achieve those goals. I was looking forward to a tech-heavy conversation overall, with a focus on features and functions that would be helpful to organizations’ healthcare IT solutions.

I quickly realized that the overall discussion was going to be quite different from what I had envisioned. Conversations went beyond features and functionality, instead focusing on how the elements of clinical data, interoperability, and community are essential to attaining health equity, as stated by Scott Stuewe, President and CEO of DirectTrust. This theme of health equity, which is defined by the CDC as “when every person has the opportunity to ‘attain his or her full health potential’ and no one is ‘disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances,’” was the driver of many of our conversations as well as the topic of many of the sessions.

Mr. Stuewe went on to say, “We’re all in the health equity business…we are infrastructure. It’s time to build.” I was deeply impressed with some of the improvements that are being made to the DirectTrust Directory, and excited to think about DataMotion’s role, and how we can help.

Rishi Manchanda, CEO of HealthBegins, followed up with Mr. Stuewe’s comments by stating that failure to integrate social care and reduce inequities makes it harder to achieve health equity. “Regional health improvement collaboratives and health information exchanges can help build the nation’s infrastructure for health equity.” While it’s hard to fundamentally change how we envision healthcare today, it’s something for which we have already built the groundwork.

The tone of the conference was deeper and more meaningful than what I had expected. I enjoyed that. It is truly rewarding to hear how something that your company provides (in DataMotion’s case, Direct Secure Messaging) is positively impacting patient care. For example, I attended a session titled “Improving Information Sharing in Arkansas for Children in Foster Care.” Justin Villines, HIT Policy Director at SHARE HIE, and Anne Santifer, Director at SHARE HIE, spoke about leveraging their existing Direct infrastructure to share daily custody reports. The automated process goes something like this:

• Upon entering the foster care system or a new home, a child’s data is entered into a database. When the child moves homes or exits the system, their information is updated.
• From initial foster system entry and when transferring homes, a custody report is sent to an HIE, which is then sent to the child’s assigned primary care provider. This report includes demographic and case worker information.
• The provider then communicates this information with the child’s case worker, updating who is (or is not) authorized to access the child’s medical records and make decisions.

This process is fast, smooth, and of course secure and within compliance. By closing the loop and eliminating barriers, the child’s most recent custody records are quickly sent to their primary care physician, and caseworkers can update information just as quickly, ensuring expedient care for the child when they need it. This example was just one of many shared at the conference that demonstrated how we are already utilizing existing technologies to connect disparate systems and bring us one step closer to achieving health equity.

I was fortunate to join the NinePatch Wine Reception on day two. It was great to meet the team at NinePatch and learn how they help care systems connect and work together across behavioral, social, and medical services. When I was speaking with Leigh Sterling, President and CEO of NinePatch, she discussed how the industry as a whole is redefining what is considered healthcare.

Ms. Sterling gave a great example of how something as simple as a flat tire could have a domino effect on mental illness. Let’s say a person’s flat tire causes them to miss work, which causes them to lose their job. This job provided mental stability, and the loss of employment causes them to spiral. This loss of employment (and potentially, the ensuing episode) could have been avoided if a payor/provider was able to provide the appropriate resources for this person to get to their job – a taxi, Uber/Lyft, etc.

Does that mean we should consider something like a rideshare app to be a part of healthcare? If so, how do we communicate someone’s needs from an EHR/EMR to non-traditional healthcare partners (such as a ridesharing app) in a way that is clear and transmitted securely and compliantly? These are all interesting things to think about, especially as we seek to remove barriers to receiving care and to better provide services for everyone, including mental health services.

Overall, the conference was a huge success and highly informative. I learned so much, not only about DirectTrust and the importance of being a HISP, but how healthcare is evolving to meet today’s needs. I enjoyed learning about how the industry is leveraging existing infrastructure that we, including DataMotion, have put in place so we can achieve health equity. I’m always thankful for being able to learn, grow, and meet new people with interesting ideas at these events.

Until next year!

–Christian

P.S. This year’s event is over, but the conversation continues and is becoming increasingly important. I welcome the opportunity to speak with you about how DataMotion can help your healthcare organization as we work toward better interoperability. Please feel free to set up an introductory chat via my calendar link.

I had the opportunity to travel to San Antonio for this year’s Civitas Networks for Health Conference, a collaborative event with DirectTrust™. The conference theme was “Health Data Collaboratives and Information Exchange to Advance Health Equity”. Sessions primarily focused on healthcare interoperability and clinical data sharing, and featured Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) speaking to various use cases and value propositions. One of the many topics of interest to me was the concept of an HIE as a health data utility (HDU). The idea behind this is that a gap exists between public health agencies and healthcare organizations, and that an HDU can be thought of as a mechanism to bridge that gap.

The idea of a health data utility is new and so definitions continue to emerge. During a roundtable discussion in February 2022, The Civitas Networks for Health illustrated an emerging definition: “Health Data Utilities (HDUs) are statewide entities that combine, enhance, and exchange electronic health data across care and services settings for treatment, quality improvement, and public and community health purposes through specific, defined use cases in accordance with applicable state and federal laws protecting patient privacy.” While HIEs have played an important role in filling the interoperability gaps within our communities, the pandemic highlighted marked gaps in policy and technology between the general healthcare ecosystem and public health agencies. And it is this policy and technology gap where the concept of an HIE as an HDU takes hold.

An HDU brings a significant amount of information technology expertise to public health. This includes enhancing the overall effectiveness of areas such as data aggregation, analysis, reporting, and interoperability. HDUs can potentially do things like aggregating clinical and claims data within a state, and combining the data with that from state registries and other reportable events, with a goal towards improving public health. Physicians can then access this data in the field, thereby making treatment plans more effective and improving outcomes within a community. The concepts around facilitating the flow of data throughout a community between healthcare organizations and public health agencies, then subsequently enhancing aggregated data for either treatment or public health purposes, is the value proposition for an HDU.

Think about getting aggregated de-identified clinical data from an EMS or police department into the repository of a public health agency, or getting actionable disease surveillance data from a public health agency into the hands of a physician on the ground treating a patient in real time. I’ll cover this in a little more detail in the next section.

To elaborate on the scenario above, let’s discuss a use case that involves an EMS clinician. While administering care to a patient in the field, this clinician is utilizing a mobile, handheld device to transmit clinical data to a public health agency for disease surveillance. The public health agency will utilize the health data utility to receive and process this incoming data for analysis and reporting, disseminating back to the community. This is just one example of how an HDU can serve as a bridge between providers (in this case, the EMS clinicians) and a public health agency.

In summary, HDUs act as a public health intermediary, receiving, normalizing, aggregating, de-identifying, and disseminating actionable data in real time. This is much like a public water company ensuring the constant flow of clean drinking water—providing an infrastructure to receive, purify, and distribute potable water to the service area for the benefit of the community.

For a health data utility to successfully fulfill its purpose, it must rapidly, securely, and compliantly execute large-scale retrieval and dissemination of data from multiple external endpoints within a community. Each endpoint tends to utilize a different platform to receive and transmit clinical data, which adds to the overall challenge because these platforms don’t always “talk” with one another. To facilitate this type of data flow, a technology platform is required to couple the different endpoints and to secure the data during transit. The security of PHI while in motion is paramount to ensure the confidentiality and privacy of the patient. HDUs will require scalable platforms that meet the growing quantity of data being generated, while simultaneously mitigating the risk of unauthorized data disclosure during transit.

One solution to this overall challenge is a secure message center, which enables individuals, and organizations with multiple endpoints, to securely and compliantly send and receive clinical information in real time.

DataMotion has led the industry in secure and compliant exchange for over 20 years. Our secure message center enables the frictionless, secure, and compliant flow of sensitive information among disparate individuals and organizations. Within healthcare, we also operate as a Health Information Services Provider (HISP) where our platform serves as an on-ramp to the DirectTrust Network. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, our HISP enabled the large-scale transmission of electronic case reports from healthcare providers across the nation.

The Civitas conference has always been a favorite of mine and this year’s event did not disappoint. I always find this event to be time well spent with colleagues across the country to discuss this particularly important topic of healthcare interoperability. We look forward to further engagement with the Civitas community to assist in furthering efforts to broaden and deepen interoperability among stakeholders and most importantly, helping to connect endpoints between the public and private healthcare systems across the nation.

I welcome the opportunity to discuss how DataMotion can help your healthcare organization. Please feel free to set up an introductory chat using my calendar link.

Looking forward to next year’s conference!

Team DataMotion was excited to attend the Civitas Networks for Health, 2022 Annual Conference, a Collaboration with the DirectTrust Summit in beautiful San Antonio! We spent time exploring the exhibit hall, attending sessions, and speaking with others across the healthcare industry about clinical data exchange. Overall, it was an incredibly informative and enjoyable event and it was great to learn more about the future of interoperability and the healthcare IT space.

The major topic of our team’s discussions centered on secure communications between internal and external stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem. Throughout these conversations, we recognized a single question shared amongst industry colleagues: how can organizations work together to simplify the secure exchange of clinical data so it can be better, and more-meaningfully, leveraged?

As the leading provider of secure exchange for over 20 years, with over 10 of those years providing Direct Secure Messaging, we found ourselves right at home during these conversations. Protecting health data is incredibly important; ensuring that data can be easily accessed and used for things like patient care and public health reporting is equally important. This intersection of data security, regulatory compliance, and ease of use is precisely what we do, so it was both exciting and informative for us to hear these challenges and discover additional ways that our solutions can help enable interoperability.

In today’s entry to the DataMotion Blog, we’re sharing some of our top conference “overheards” that include snippets from conversations, sessions, and other event discussions around public health, interoperability, and more.

“In the past, public health was very reactionary. We need to determine what else needs to be done so we don’t have to wait for bad things to make a difference.” 

“How do we assess and analyze the use of public health data?” 

“Ultimately, we’re talking about how we help an individual member to get what they need.”

“My dream is that I can pull up the Department of Health (DoH) website and see case rates for any virus in my county or district.”

Team DataMotion representing at Booth 53!

“Community-centered, multi-stakeholder collaboration and governance is really difficult and really important… especially when talking about health data and communities.”

“Data, interoperability, and community are key to health equity.”

“It takes a crisis to see what you do and don’t have… there is a lot of opportunity to advance and connect systems.”

“We need to prepare systems so that they are connected and ready before an emergency comes.”

The view from our table of the exhibit hall. I spy the coffee table 👀

“As new regulations are brought about, we respond with policies of our own… create new standards… and above all, innovate.”

“If you are a Health Information Service Provider (HISP) and you don’t have an understanding of what motivates regional health data collaboratives or Health Information Exchanges (HIEs)… get involved and find out what they need.”

“If you are an HIE, and you haven’t talked to a HISP lately, you probably don’t know what they have been doing and how much they have been innovating…”

On Clinical Data Exchange: “They don’t care what it’s made out of, it just needs to work quickly and with as few steps as possible.”

On Laws and Regulations: “Talk TEFCA to me.”

On Resources: “[Hospital’s] IT department is one guy. He’s in on Thursday. I’m serious.”

Jim Hyde and Christian Grunkemeyer talk takeaways during the “DataMotion Zone” video. Check it out here.

Whether you attended the Civitas Networks for Health and DirectTrust conference or not, we hope you enjoyed these overheards and gained a little insight into the overall conversation at the event. If you’re interested in learning more about how DataMotion’s APIs and pre-built solutions simplify clinical data exchange, set up some time to chat with a member of our team using one of the links below:

• Doug Rubino: https://meetings.hubspot.com/dougr
• Christian Grunkemeyer: https://meetings.hubspot.com/christiang

For more trends and information related to clinical data, be sure follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Explore More

• Advancing Health Equity: The Civitas Networks for Health and DirectTrust Conference
• Data Innovation and Healthcare Interoperability: Civitas Networks for Health and DirectTrust
• What Exactly is a HISP?
• DataMotion Direct Secure Messaging

I am excited to head to San Antonio for next week’s Civitas Networks for Health 2022 Annual Conference, a Collaboration with the DirectTrust Summit. Following on the 2021 merger of SHIEC and the NRHI to form the Civitas Networks for Health, the conference this year will join the Civitas and DirectTrust™ communities in a collaborative event. My colleagues and I are excited to meet others in the healthcare IT space, hear about industry pain points, and discuss how we can remedy tomorrow’s challenges today.

The Civitas Networks for Health membership consists of local, regional, and national healthcare information exchange networks whose mission is to facilitate the exchange of healthcare information amongst disparate endpoints within a healthcare ecosystem. As a conference sponsor with the same mission, DataMotion will be onsite to discuss our technology, how it has enabled healthcare organizations across the ecosystem to exchange clinical data in a secure manner, to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of that data.

Next week’s conference will convene industry thought leaders and recognized healthcare professionals from across the country. Interoperability and data sharing will be the focus of the dialogue, with a concentration on enabling the effective and efficient sharing of clinical data within the healthcare industry towards ensuring positive patient outcomes. These all happen to be areas of passion for both DataMotion and myself, personally.

In past entries to the DataMotion Blog, I’ve spoken to the critical element of interoperability, and how important it is for every type of healthcare organization to be able to not only securely transmit clinical data in a compliant manner, but to do so with ease. Whether these communications are between a provider, a payor, a community-based organization, or an organization within the life sciences sector, that execution must be as efficient as it is secure. The elements of efficiency and a frictionless experience are key to a number of enormous benefits, including cost savings and the increased potential for positive patient outcomes.

As an accredited HISP, DataMotion developed Direct Secure Messaging to enable organizations across the healthcare ecosystem to comply with Meaningful Use Stage 1. When Meaningful Use Stage 2 was introduced in 2012, the industry better understood the essential nature of not only the transmission itself, but also the role of the user experience. We didn’t know it at the time, but easily transmitting and receiving clinical information was going to prove critical. Fast forward to the COVID-19 pandemic, a massive pivot into touchless clinical communications caused a need for an incredibly high volume of secure data exchange. Additionally, the national infrastructure to facilitate the substantial volumes and instantaneous reporting requirements of healthcare providers and public health agencies was severely lacking. DataMotion responded to this gap by enabling the secure exchange of COVID-19 electronic case reporting (eCR) through our HISP. At the height of the Omicron variant in January 2022, our HISP was processing over 30,000 eCRs per hour. This incredibly large throughput speaks to the agility, connectivity, and scalability requirements HISPs must meet in order to adapt to the mission-critical requirements of a major public health crisis, powering the nationwide transmission of electronic case reporting.

DataMotion embraces opportunities such as next week’s conference to further engage in thought leadership with our peers in these critically-important areas. As a secure exchange company with over 20 years of experience, and a founding member of DirectTrust, we remain committed to driving new use cases for Direct Secure Messaging and to the continued overall success of the protocol.

Our team is looking forward to speaking with you and discussing how DataMotion can help your healthcare organization more easily and effectively interact with other organizations within the ecosystem. Stop by Booth 53, or set up a meeting with me ahead of time: https://meetings.hubspot.com/dougr 

See you in San Antonio!

Explore More

• Advancing Health Equity: The Civitas Networks for Health and DirectTrust Conference
• Healthcare IT: Challenges and Opportunities in Secure Exchange
• Reimagining Healthcare Interoperability and Secure Information Exchange
• Connecting the Healthcare Ecosystems: Interoperability, Healthcare IT, and HIMSS 2022
• Directly Speaking: The 2021 DirectTrust™ Summit