Digital Health Procurement Guidelines

About the Guidelines 

The Digital Health Procurement Guidelines (the Guidelines) support a coordinated and consistent approach to purchasing healthcare technology in Australia. They will help to bring about a change in the market, where interoperability, global standards and best practice are built into procurement processes.

Interoperability and digital health standards are fundamental to ensuring connected care across Australia.  By embedding standards within technology procurement we boost digital capability and ensure better access to accurate, timely health information and reusable data within Australian health systems, benefiting clinicians, consumers, patients and their care teams.

Developed by the Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) in collaboration with the Australian healthcare sector, the Guidelines include practical steps for incorporating digital health standards into procurement processes to enable interoperability.
 

Looking ahead

The Agency will continue to update the Procurement Guidelines so they stay relevant to industry, practical for day-to-day use, and aligned with best practice.

As part of that commitment, between July and September 2025 we invited specialists and the public to share their views through a Consultation survey on the Guidelines and how to improve them. This consultation gave us clear insights into what is working well and where we can add more value.

The Consultation survey:

• Received 137 responses
• Respondents included:
  • procurement SMEs
  • ICT vendors
  • clinicians, and
  • State and territory health officials.
• Four themes emerged for improvements:
  • Practical tools like templates and checklists
  • Content development on emerging areas like Saas technologies, cybersecurity and data governance
  • Easier navigation that follows real-world procurement processes
  • Clarity and definition updates.

Looking ahead the Guidelines will be developed and maintained with participation from the healthcare industry and State and Territories to include new content, clearer navigation, and practical tools that support procurement teams. Our intent is that the Guidelines promote interoperability, follow procurement best practice, and include emerging digital health landscape requirements.

Who should use the Guidelines?

The Guidelines are designed to support organisations when engaging with technology providers. Organisations can easily navigate to the standards and requirements specific to the system or technology they wish to procure. Relevant standards can be incorporated into procurement processes and used in the development of contracts. Buyers in both public and private organisations are welcome to link to these Guidelines in tender documents to ensure essential requirements are considered upfront.

The Guidelines can be used by:

• leaders responsible for buying medical devices, ICT systems and architecture, and related services
• technology providers/vendors in the design and development of solutions
• other professionals involved in the procurement process such as clinicians, health service planners, healthcare managers, health informaticians, ICT strategy and architecture subject matter experts.

Why are the Guidelines important? 

The Guidelines agreed to by the sector, for use across the sector, will ensure a coordinated approach and alignment to international best practices.
They aim to ensure:

• safer and more connected healthcare for all Australians
• seamless flow of data between healthcare services
• semantic data consistency.

Improving interoperability across systems improves the availability of consistent, accurate health information that is easily accessed by clinicians when they need it. This is one of the key elements to making the Australian healthcare system more connected.

Defining a clear set of standards and requirements helps the sector achieve enhanced levels of consistency and capability for technology solutions that better support patients, consumers and clinicians.

The Guidelines will also support technology companies to better understand the standards and requirements for inclusion in the design and delivery of digital health solutions.

Other considerations when planning procurement

Digital health procurement is complex, involving a range of stakeholders and varying approaches by different organisations and jurisdictions. However, the Agency has provided direction below for consideration throughout the procurement process. 

Get started 

The Procurement Guidelines are focussed on helping to achieve consistency in the procurement process by providing guidance to procuring and contracting authorities across Australian healthcare.

The guidelines set out to provide some guiding principles and practical guidance, including statements related to the digital health standards that should be considered as part of the sourcing process for technology solutions.