ADHA signs MoU with HL7 on digital health standards

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with non-profit organisation Health Level Seven Australia (HL7) aimed at supporting the development and implementation of digital health standards.

The partnership aims to support the adoption and implementation of the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards by healthcare practitioners across Australia.

It will encompass the joint delivery of training, education and uplift capabilities to help Australia’s health workforce transition to and use the new standards.

ADHA CEO Amanda Cattermole said fostering a vibrant FHIR community in Australia is part of the agency’s Connecting Australian Health Care – National Healthcare Interoperability Plan.

“Put simply, FHIR is the how-to-guide that enables health information movement from one place to another, a freely available and nationally endorsed interoperability standard,” she explained.

“The Agency and HL7 recognise that different parts of the health system are at different points in their digital journey. The long-established V2 and CDA standards are widely used. These will continue to be supported during the transition to FHIR.”

Cattermole said digital health standards like FHIR are critical to the secure and seamless movement of consumer health information between different healthcare providers.

“Fostering and enabling interoperability in the health system is critically important and standards have a key role to play. The objective is to create a new era of digital health in Australia with strong governance,” she said.

“This means open and collaborative processes for the agreement, development, testing, publishing and maintenance of digital health standards.”

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