---
title: Net2Net REST Message Context Overview
slug: net2net-rest-message-context/guide
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-07-08T18:45:50.945Z
---

## About Net2Net REST

Net2Net REST is used to exchange Clinical messages. A Clinical message in the context of this guide is a message delivered to and from authorized customers on the Surescripts network (as such may be renamed from time to time by Surescripts), and satisfies the following requirements:

- Contains clinical or administrative information about a specific patient used for health care payment, treatment, or operations.
- Is not structured except to the extent necessary to transmit an attachment and as necessary for address fields.
- Is not limited to a specific message type or use case.
- Does not require message type or use case-specific workflow integration into the Electronic Health Record (EHR).

By implementing the Net2Net REST standard, Surescripts enables our customer to meet Promoting Interoperability requirements. Surescripts messaging meets the transport and security specifications outlined in the Office of the National Coordinator’s (ONC) Health Information Technology: Standards, Implementation, Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology, 2015 edition.

## About This Guide

This Guide was created to assist customers in developing solutions that support appropriate triage and processing of a Clinical Message. It does not define the specific workflow within the sending or receiving health technology, but does provide a mechanism that can be used to interpret the intent of a message. The audience for this document includes any customer responsible for developing a system interface to the Surescripts network using Net2Net REST.

This supplemental guide is meant to support, integrate, and further clarify the application of Message Context for the Net2Net REST Implementation. It is not the creation of a Direct standard, nor does it reference the Direct Project’s Implementation Guide for Expressing Context in Direct.

## Document References

Please reference the following documents when reading this guide:

| **Document Title**                             |
| ---------------------------------------------- |
| Surescripts Net2Net REST IG                    |
| XDR and XDM for Direct Messaging Specification |