notes: events/talks/kericonf26-14-panel-public-private-partnerships

This data as json

path title type status classification words body
events/talks/kericonf26-14-panel-public-private-partnerships George McEwan: How KERI Enables Better Private-Public Partnerships (KERIConf 2026) summary v0.1 — 2026-10-15: drafted by Claude from the curated transcript; unread by Mark; marked partner on Mark's word 2026-10-21, paraphrase only, no quotation partner 842 # George McEwan: How KERI Enables Better Private-Public Partnerships (KERIConf 2026) **Abstract.** George McEwan moderated the closing panel of the first day, on how KERI (Key Event Receipt Infrastructure) can support partnerships between government and industry, with a focus on healthcare. Panelists from Utah state government, DirectTrust, GLEIF (the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation), healthKERI and a former CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) role discussed how they came to identity work, what KERI could solve in healthcare within five years, the barriers to adoption and the one regulatory change each would make. It is for anyone working on policy, healthcare or public-sector adoption. ## Summary The transcript names the panelists by first name. Following the vault's event record, they are Chris Bramwell (Utah's chief privacy officer), Scott Stuewe (DirectTrust), Mark Scrimshire (formerly of CMS), Karla McKenna (GLEIF) and Jared Jeffery (healthKERI). **How each came to identity.** The DirectTrust panelist traced his interest to patient-matching projects in which records could only be matched probabilistically and duplication stayed high for decades, and he argued that the first transaction, when someone is enrolled, decides everything after it. The former CMS panelist described trying to automate registration of third-party health apps, which needed a way to confirm an organization's identity and led him toward KERI. Karla McKenna described her path from financial-services identifiers through the LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) to the vLEI (verifiable LEI). Jared Jeffery said that his generation grew up without a line between physical and digital identity. Chris Bramwell described calls from people who had lost control of their data and his conclusion that government needs individual identity as its anchor of trust. **Public-private partnership.** Bramwell recounted how Utah's engagement began when Samuel Smith and colleagues presented KERI to state officials, who were skeptical but kept listening, brought in critics and asked other approaches to the table. Panelists described DirectTrust's origin in a federally supported effort, HL7 (Health Level Seven) accelerators as partnerships that write the standards regulators point to, GLEIF's ongoing regulatory oversight, and the value of open standards in keeping either side from dictating terms. **Healthcare in five years.** Answers included organizational identity tied to the individual's context; cutting attacks that enter through third-party connections, with a figure of 73 percent offered from the panel; moving the workforce from reusable credentials to password-free access; and a reliable way to show who someone is online. Bramwell argued that the money now flows to AI, so identity work should show efficiency gains in AI uses, such as verifiable delegation to agents, and pointed to Utah's regulatory sandbox and its AI prescription pilot. **Barriers.** Asked about friction for healthcare organizations, McKenna named behavior change, explaining benefits rather than technology, and using the LEI to tell providers apart. Stuewe said the community must drop jargon and acronyms and speak plainly. Jeffery added that money moves the industry, both for vendors and for customers who need lower cost or more business. Bramwell described regulatory incentives such as reciprocal verifiability and safe harbors. Scrimshire advised framing changes as small steps on what agencies already do. Panelists also urged choosing use cases with clear product-market fit, citing a retailer's readiness to accept SEDI (state-endorsed digital identity) for age checks. **One regulatory change.** Proposals were CMS requiring vLEIs for its national provider directory, a rule that providers record identifiers a patient presents, principle-based identity laws that start from the features needed, repeal of the federal ban on funding a national patient identifier, and a broader rewrite toward end-to-end verifiability and a duty of loyalty. ## Key terms public-private partnership, first transaction, organizational identity, vLEI, SEDI, regulatory sandbox, verifiable delegation, reciprocal verifiability, safe harbor, duty of loyalty, national patient identifier ## Claims and their evidence - Utah's engagement with KERI began with a meeting in which Samuel Smith and colleagues presented it to state officials, followed by fact-based sessions that included skeptics. [presenter-reported] - A panelist stated that 73 percent of cyberattacks in US healthcare come through third parties. [presenter-reported] - A panelist who accredits healthcare organizations reported that most breaches reviewed involve misuse of a valid credential. [presenter-reported] - Utah's regulatory sandbox produced the first automated AI prescription issuance. [presenter-reported] - A retailer told the SEDI summit that it could accept SEDI for age-restricted purchases within six months of an implementation guide. [presenter-reported] ## Related SEDI and the SEDI policy summit; the vLEI and the LEI; Samuel Smith's State of the KERI Suite talk; DirectTrust and the Direct Project; HL7, the Da Vinci project and the CARIN Alliance; UDAP (Unified Data Access Profiles) and TEFCA (the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement); CMS Blue Button; Section 510 of the HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) appropriations bill. ## Provenance Drafted by Claude on 2026-10-15 from the curated transcript (14-george-mcewan-how-keri-enables-better-private-public-partnerships.md), all of it (about 51 minutes). The transcript gives panelists' first names only; full names and affiliations follow the vault's existing event note, and several turns are not attributed in the transcript, so they are summarized by theme. No quotations; paraphrase only. Not yet read by Mark.

Links from other tables