The Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) has announced  it will offer Direct Project messaging services to providers through AlliedHIE Company, a certified health information services provider (HISP) launched by Nashville-based Informatics Corporation of America (ICA).

Allied-Direct’s live HISP environment will enable existing users to immediately begin using Allied Direct and the new federal healthcare email system, known as the Direct Project. In addition to existing users, hospitals and physicians, Allied Direct and DHIN will begin a new series of outreach, marketing and meetings to all healthcare professionals including pharmacies, labs, long-term care, specialists and behavioral health professionals in early 2013.  

“We are very pleased to announce our new relationship with AlliedHIE Company and its Allied Direct e-mail and HISP services in Delaware," Jan Lee, M.D., executive director of DHIN, said in a statement.  “We are confident the relationship between AlliedHIE and DHIN will energize a new growth in affordable interoperability and information exchange by and between Delaware healthcare professionals. Delaware remains committed to helping advance national interoperability and the new federal healthcare email system, the Direct Project.  It’s an important next step."

The Direct Project is still in its infancy. HISPs and Direct provide a simple, affordable, HIPAA-compliant method to encourage electronic exchange of health information among healthcare providers, particularly those providers that do not have the resources or technical capacity to engage in more comprehensive health information exchange.