DHA publishes standards framework for digital health

The Australian Digital Health Agency (DHA) has published its National Framework for Digital Health Standards to support a more consistent, connected and clinically safe digital health system.

Agency Chief Executive Officer Amanda Cattermole said the National Framework for Digital Health Standards provides a foundation for innovation and supports the seamless integration of digital tools into all the healthcare settings that Australians rely on.

“Different organisations have developed and applied standards in isolation, with limited coordination to fit those pieces together across the system,” she said. “The National Framework for Digital Health Standards provides clear, practical guidance and aligns governance, standards development and implementation across government agencies, jurisdictions, health services, partners and industry.”

Agency Chief Digital Officer Peter O’Halloran said the need for nationally aligned standards is growing as digital health adoption accelerates.

“As pathology and diagnostic imaging reports are increasingly shared to My Health Record ahead of the 1 July mandate, the number of times Australians have viewed this information has grown significantly — by 112% (from 54 million to 114 million) and 72% (6.5 million to 11.2 million), respectively, over the past year,” he said. “As mandatory sharing expands to more key health information, scalable and conformant national digital infrastructure becomes critical to safe, reliable information-sharing across the health system.

“Conformance built on consistent standards gives Australians confidence that digital health systems can work together as intended, and that the information healthcare providers rely on is timely, accurate, secure and clinically safe.”

To drive use of the framework across the Australian health ecosystem, the Agency supports key health standards development organisations in Australia and internationally.

The Agency has also established the Standards Academy to provide free training to help clinicians, developers, policymakers, researchers and industry apply digital health standards in practice. The Standards Academy helps build capability in the consistent adoption and implementation of key standards, including SNOMED CT, GS1 and FHIR.

The National Framework for Digital Health Standards can be downloaded here.

Image credit: iStock.com/andresr