MaxMD: A Pioneering Architect of HIT and Interoperability Solutions

MaxMD began with the idea of creating a secure healthcare domain on the World Wide Web. When the ONC announced the Direct Protocol the company recognized the power of the standard, adjusted their plan and joined DirectTrust.
MaxMD was one of the first HISPs to complete EHNAC Accreditation at the inception of the Direct Protocol in October of 2010. Now, MaxMD is an EHNAC Accredited Health Information Service Provider (HISP), Registration Authority (RA), and Certificate Authority (CA). The company has grown significantly since that time. The services have expanded upon Direct to offer unprecedented levels of data liquidity. This strategy positions MaxMD to create lightweight, scalable interoperability solutions that are easier to implement and less costly to maintain than typical HIE approaches.
The Team-Oriented CEO
Scott A. Finlay, the President and CEO of MaxMD brings more than 20 years of global business experience, drawing on previous roles in business management and strategy. With expertise in assessing the feasibility of new business ventures and emerging technologies, Scott is also highly skilled at assembling, motivating, and guiding entrepreneurial product development teams.
At MaxMD he’s built a strong leadership team with engineering, operations, sales, and marketing expertise. He encourages his execs to play leadership roles within the standards development communities. CTO Bruce Schreiber is Chairman of the Board for DirectTrust and VP Business Development Lisa Nelson is Co-Chair of the HL7 CDA Management Group.
Distinguished Services and Products
Leveraging standards such as FHIR, CDA, and Direct, MaxMD offers a modular suite of secure health information exchange solutions that enhance interoperability and scalability across the broadest array of applications, systems and devices.
MaxMD’s enhanced interoperability services suite includes a dynamic event notification system. ADT information and C-CDA document creation trigger clinical data to be sent to predefined endpoints in real-time without manual intervention. The rules engine eases interoperability across the care ecosystem delivering critical information to the right caregiver at the right time. The MaxMD HISP also utilizes a highly customized data integration engine to programmatically transform data payloads while in transit. Operational use cases include integrating with a legacy LIS to deliver lab results, reformatting data to be consumed by registries, and delivery of admission and discharge notifications.
MaxMD helps organizations replace expensive one-to-one interfaces with scalable, secure, non-persistent connections. Using Direct to access FHIR APIs is a unique service that leverages two different technical protocols to increase interoperability and scale the exchange of ePHI. This is a federated solution which enables a patient or provider to query and pull medical records simply by sending a Direct message. MaxMD leverages the trust-in-identity assured by a DirectTrust address to support authentication and authorization of an HL7 request to a FHIR API. It can be used by any application, from a desktop, or from the MaxMD App on mobile devices.
MaxMD also has a natural language processing capability designed to make clinical information more actionable. It minimizes the time-consuming process of manually reviewing documents. Lastly, MaxSignatures™ supplements the benefits of Direct Secure Messaging with digital signing of documents and/or forms.
The team is involved with the industry’s Standards Development Organizations. It helps it to stay abreast of government requirements and helps ensure its products remain consistent with the direction of key industry work groups that are shaping the standards for the industry.
Approaching Challenges with Brilliance
The founders of MaxMD did not come from the healthcare industry, and apparently they approached its challenges in a totally different manner. Initially, the team faced skepticism about its limited knowledge in healthcare. Facing that skepticism evolved into a positive attribute. We learned to listen to our customers, let their needs guide the solutions we develop.
MaxMD is a skilled team of engineers with deep technical expertise. The team provides leadership in the application of standards such as HL7 V2, C-CDA, and FHIR. The team believes success in interoperability lies in leveraging the power of available standards. MaxMD solutions address a wide range of needs across a diverse client base including healthcare providers, patients, and payers. The more these constituents realize the versatility of the Direct Protocol the more its pipeline grows.
The Two Basic Principles
MaxMD fosters an environment of intellectual honesty and open dialog between all team members and clients. MaxMD has two basic operating principles. One is, “no one has a corner on the good idea market”. As a team we’re committed to a simple notion, “the best idea wins”. Everyone is encouraged to contribute their best. When new folks join the team, they encourage them to voice their thoughts even if that thought seems to contradict the current plans.
Those two principles, combined with its commitment to listen to the customers, help the team stay current and evolving with the market. We are not too proud to learn something new from outside the organization. We foster curiosity and encourage creativity that helps clients solve their unique challenges.
Many clients in healthcare have similar challenges and the team offers tools that can be configured to work with legacy systems as well as new applications or HIT systems broadly. Any organization that collects data or has a need to share data for care coordination or to reduce costs and improve patient outcomes can benefit from a scalable and sustainable approach to interoperability services.