Standards development
Supporting the adoption of digital health standards through practical tools, guidance, and collaboration.
A connected health system built on standards
The Agency works with partners across government, healthcare, industry and the community to develop national standards for digital health. These standards are the foundation to the interoperability of a connected healthcare system.
Digital health standards are formal documents that may specify the use of required processes, criteria or methodology to improve consumer confidence regarding the safety and reliability of a digital health solution. Development of standards is a complex, open, transparent and often formal process requiring the input and consensus of multiple expert stakeholder groups.
Categories of standards
Digital health standards can be categorised by type:
- Content - organisation and structure of message content (data).
- Terminology and vocabulary - structured classification systems for unanimous understanding of health concepts
- Identifiers - unique identification of an individual healthcare provider, consumer, organisation or device
- Transport and messaging - message formatting for data exchange between systems
- Security - protection of control over personal or organisational information
- Privacy - protection of data integrity and confidentiality
How are standards created?
The creation, maintenance and publishing of standards is largely the domain of a group of Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) or SDO-Like organisations.
Formal SDOs have user focused, consensus-based, formal processes that are used to manage their standards development processes. SDO-Like organisations will often consult users but may not have the same process to allow for voting by users.
In Australia, a multi-tiered approach to adopting or developing standards is taken:
- ADOPTING International standards if they exist and can be applied without modification
- ADAPTING International standards to the Australian context where localisation enables faster and more comprehensive implementation
- CREATION of local standards where no international standards exist.
Aligning with international standards wherever possible often ensures greater interoperability with global systems and processes which in an increasingly connected world can mean faster access to new technologies.
Tailoring of international standards, to be Australian compliant, is often required due to the structure of the system, identifier requirements, regulations or legislative needs.
In all instances, clear implementation guidance is published to facilitate consistent adoption and provide support. This approach makes Australia's digital health standards applicable and suitable for healthcare providers and the community.
Current priorities
Focus areas include:
- Terminology and data standards - supporting consistent, unambiguous language as foundational to the data that is captured, stored and shared
- Interoperability - creating frameworks that enable health information to flow between healthcare organisations and seamlessly across the whole system.
- Consumer access - enabling Australians to engage with and benefit from their own health data.
Working with Standards Development Organisations (SDOs)
Stakeholder opportunities exist within local standards development and international development across a multitude of SDOs and processes.
Details of how to get involved in Standards Development within individual organisations can be found via the below links:
Sparked
Standards Australia
HL7 International
GS1 Australia
openEHR
IHE
