DirectTrust alliance developing standard for trusted healthcare instant messaging

DirectTrust, a non-profit, vendor-neutral alliance initially created by and for participants in the Direct communications standard, has announced the development of Trusted Instant Messaging, or TIM, an industry-first standard to enable real-time communication of health information that incorporates trust network concepts to ensure secure transmissions between known, trusted entities within and across enterprises. DirectTrust is a healthcare industry alliance created to advance the electronic sharing of protected health information between provider organizations, and between providers and patients, for the purpose of improved transitions of care, care efficiency and coordination, patient satisfaction, and reducing healthcare cost. While unsecured messaging may occur via text message, iMessage, products like Slack and others, there currently is no standard for secure instant messaging in healthcare, especially between disparate systems. Furthermore, use of unsecured messaging poses risk that HIPAA and other privacy regulations may be violated.