The National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) was incorporated as a not-for-profit on May 1, 2013. Emerging from the work of the Western State’s Consortium, a multi-state collaborative that brought together over a dozen state’s HIE leadership, NATE was formed as a membership association focused on enabling trusted exchange among organizations and individuals with differing regulatory environments and exchange preferences. Building on the PHR Ignite project funded in part by the ONC to explore enabling what is now called “Consumer Directed Exchange” NATE emerged as the first national advocate for consumer health information access and the empowerment of the individual that this would access. Building on the same protocols baked into the regulatory requirements associated with Certified EHR Technologies (CEHRT), NATE established and operate a PKI-based Trust Bundle that enabled relying parties to securely share health information with “PHRs” – or consumer controlled apps, as they are known today. Known as NATE’s Blue Button for Consumers (NBB4C) Trust Bundle – it became widely recognized as the Blue Button trust mechanism, or simply Blue Button.
Many people contributed to the work of NATE and and can proudly recall being a part of establishing what is referred to by some as Blue Button 1.0. As we approach the end of the decade and the success of Blue Button 2.0 is clearly advancing independent of NATE’s support the Leadership of NATE have made the decision to dissolve the not-for-profit and contribute its remaining assets to the CARIN Alliance. The CARIN Alliance is leading the country in establishing a current, standards based model of consumer directed exchange frequently referred to as Blue Button 2.0. Today, the CARIN Alliances success in establishing a remarkable community of active stakeholders from across the industry dwarfs NATE’s size at its height. The Founders of NATE are happy to retire from the field knowing that CARIN will continue to grow and build on its success and carry forward the FHIR that NATE helped ignite so many years ago.
Effective midnight December 31, 2019 NATE will no longer be in operations. It was a rewarding experience and thanks to our successors we can continue to support the individual right of access and consumer directed exchange into the future.
