DirectTrust today announced the election of health care industry executives Linda Van Horn and Dan Paoletti to its board of directors and the election of Paul Uhrig, an executive at Surescripts, as its new Board chair. Additionally, Chris Muir from the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT, ONC, has been named Board Liaison, a new position. DirectTrust is a health care industry alliance created by and for participants in the Direct exchange network.

"We are pleased to add individuals with Linda and Dan's high level of experience and knowledge to our talented board of directors," said David C. Kibbe, MD, MBA, President and CEO of DirectTrust. "Linda and Dan are highly-regarded leaders and innovators in health care information exchange and are known for their collaborative leadership. They will be valuable assets to our Board and our members in their efforts to help health care professionals, health IT vendors and their patients and customers communicate safely and securely."

Ms. Van Horn is founder, president and Chief Executive Officer of iShare Medical, an EHNAC Accredited Trust Anchor Bundle HISP and Governmental Trust Anchor Bundle HISP. She is also founder, president and CEO of 21st Century Edge, a management consulting firm serving hospitals, physicians and ambulatory surgery centers in the field of pain management. Earlier, Ms. Van Horn was a senior manager in IT Consulting at Deloitte.

Mr. Paoletti is Chief Executive Officer of the Ohio Health Information Partnership. As a founding member of the partnership, Mr. Paoletti has helped shape the vision, mission and policies of the organization since its 2009 inception. He is the creator of CliniSync HIE. With 2,500 organizations serving 10.5 million patients, CliniSync is one of the nation's largest and most successful health information exchanges (HIE). Earlier, Mr. Paoletti was vice president of the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) and Chief Operating Officer of OHA Solutions.

Mr. Uhrig, chief administrative, legal and privacy officer for Surescripts, was elected Board chair to replace Dr. John Blair, whose term expired. At Surescripts, Mr. Uhrig is responsible for a number of critical corporate functions, including internal audit, legal, privacy, security, policy, and governmental affairs, as well as certification compliance.

"The Board has tremendous confidence in Paul's experience and leadership qualities," said Dr. Kibbe. "His knowledge, expertise and commitment to the Board and all of our members make him the ideal candidate to serve as Board chair. I also want to thank Dr. John Blair for his many contributions and dedicated service as Board chair for the past four years."

Mr. Muir was named to the newly-created Board Liaison position. Liaisons are individuals employed or contracted by, or affiliated with state or federal government and who represent the interests of their respective governmental agency to the Board. Mr. Muir works at ONC's Office of Standards and Technology as division director of Health IT Infrastructure and Innovation. He is responsible for ONC's nationwide situational awareness of HIT standards adoption and the Interoperability Standards Advisory.

In other Direct Trust action:

• Lucy Johns MPH was re-elected to serve another term as board vice chair. Ms. Johns is a strategic planner and policy analyst with Health Care Planning & Policy in San Francisco. As a volunteer, her interest in data brought her to CalRHIO, where she served on the Governance Committee that led to formal incorporation and learned of PHRs that could be patient-controlled.
• Bruce Schreiber was elected treasurer. Mr. Schreiber is chief technology officer at MaxMD. He is responsible for technical strategy and development as well as for building the company's technological systems. MaxMD has participated in the Direct project since the Direct Project Rules of the Road workgroup in 2010.
• Renee Smith was elected secretary. Ms. Smith is the global director of IT Enterprise planning & portfolio management at Walgreens Boots Alliance. Her professional and volunteer efforts are focused on enabling foundational capabilities in interoperability and removing blockers in the areas of policy, process and technology for providers, payers, patients and proxies.

About DirectTrust

DirectTrust is a five-year old, non-profit, vendor 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-to-provider and patient-to-provider 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 Di rectTrust 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.