5. Standards for systems and technologies
As procurements are undertaken for particular systems or technologies that are required, this section has been created to support the procurement processes for many common systems or technologies used to enable digital health.
Each digital health system or technology has a defined set of national standards and requirements. These standards are categorised as either "must-have" or "should-have" to assist in the procurement process. "Must-have" requirements are non-negotiable, while "should-have" requirements are strongly advised to adhere to global best practices.
The initial release of the Guidelines focuses on the requirements to enable interoperability (a priority area for the Agency) and includes an initial set of systems. The Agency aims to broaden the scope of requirements to include other aspects of digital health overtime. These will be informed by representatives from various user groups. Additional systems and technologies will also be introduced in the coming months.
Select your system or technology
Click on a system or technology below to review relevant standards and requirements for your procurement project. Several draft systems have been populated to provide examples of the planned detail and approach. Feedback to these is welcome.
Bed Management
A system designed to monitor and streamline the allocation of hospital beds. It provides real-time status of bed availability including occupied and unoccupied beds, and facilitates patient admissions, transfers, and discharges.
Billing Systems
A software application that generates invoices and collects payments from customers. It also keeps track of customer accounts, balances, purchases and other financial transactions. Billing systems simplify and streamline the billing process, making it easier to manage customer accounts.
Clinical Coding
A clinical coding system is software that facilitates the translation of health records into systematic classifications of medical diagnoses, procedures, resources consumed and other relevant clinical content into standardised codes, enabling accurate documentation, billing, and statistical analysis in healthcare settings.
Clinical Communication System
A clinical communication system or app that allows clinicians, patients, and caregivers to safely and securely collaborate in real-time. These systems can be used in a variety of healthcare settings and replaces traditional pagers and non-secure messaging platforms. It may support the sharing of clinical images and documents.
Cloud Solutions
Cloud solutions deliver on-demand computing services such as storage, databases, servers, networking, software and analytics over the internet. Cloud computing in healthcare makes medical record-sharing easier and safer, automates backend operations and facilitates the creation and maintenance of telehealth apps, allowing records to be accessible from remote locations.
Digital Front Door Service
A secure, single-access, user-friendly platform that combines healthcare data, services and information into one place. It is designed to improve the clinician and patient experience, making it easier for clinicians to access health data and consumers to access digital health services.
Directories
A database system to store and manage information about resources and users such as identities, usernames, passwords, access authority and preferences.
Electronic Medical Record (eMR)
A system utilised day to day by clinicians and staff to gather, manage and consult patient information and data to inform and record patient care delivery in real time.
These systems may also be referred to as Electronic Patient Record (EPR) or Digital Health Record (DHR).
Electronic Medication Management system (EMM)
The utilisation of electronic systems to facilitate and enhance the communication of a prescription or medicine order, aiding the choice, administration, and supply of a medicine through knowledge and decision support, and providing a robust audit trail for the entire medicines use process.
Enterprise Master Person Index (EMPI) Solutions
A solution that utilises algorithms on patient records to identify duplicates, errors in patient demographic information, and create a unique enterprise identifier (EUID) for each patient.
Enterprise Scheduling
A tool to manage, allocate and balance resources with demands and workloads across multiple facilities, departments, and disciplines across the health service.
Health Information Exchange (HIE)
A technology solution that enables the electronic sharing of patient healthcare information with clinicians and organisations in a region, community or hospital systems, connecting systems that would not be linked otherwise.
Laboratory Information System (LIS)
Computer software that processes, stores and manages data from all stages of medical processes and tests.
Medical Devices
Medical Devices can include portable biometric wearables or technology that captures health data. Patient or clinical data from these devices may or may not be stored in a back-end system and may or may not integrate into other clinical systems.
Medical Imaging and Radiology Information System
Medical imaging or radiology information systems can be purchased as stand-alone systems for example a Radiology Information System or a Picture Archiving and Communication System, or as an integrated package.
Medical Technology
Medical Technology are large non-portable devices such as MRI machines etc. used in a healthcare setting or by health professionals for patient management and treatment. This includes systems that are medical devices regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Medical Triage Service
A service provided by an external partner to support the medical triage process and the organisation of patients according to the severity of their injuries or illness.
Outsourced Telemedicine Service
A service provided by an external partner that enhances local telehealth capabilities. It supports rapid access to healthcare when distance is a barrier and may involve phone or video consultations with a specialist.
A system used by healthcare organisations as a registry for patient data such as name, DOB, demographic, next of kin, private health insurance details and allergies. It acts as a single source of truth feeding information into other systems to support tasks like booking appointments, making referrals or managing waiting lists. It also keeps a record of patient interactions and provides easy access to their medical history.
Patient Flow
A management tool that streamlines the movement of patients through a healthcare facility. Patient flow systems track and coordinate admissions, transfers, treatments and discharges in real-time to improve efficiency, reduce delays and enhance the patient experience.
Practice Management Software
Practice Management Software (PMS) is a system that helps healthcare practices streamline their operations. Depending on need, it can manage patient records, reporting and tracking performance, booking and scheduling, prescribing, referring, billing and claims processing.
Pharmacy Systems
A pharmacy system is the software and hardware used in pharmacies to manage medication dispensing and inventory, patient care and support regulatory compliance. It helps provide safe and efficient pharmaceutical services to patients. Hospital and community pharmacies may have difference requirements.
Referral Systems
Referral systems enable the communication between clinicians to request a health service for a diagnosis or treatment of a health issue. Referrals can be made by any healthcare provider to another healthcare provider.
Remote Patient Monitoring
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a system that allows healthcare professionals to assess, monitor and care for patients virtually. It uses software and medical devices to track a patient’s health condition outside of traditional clinical settings, such as in the home or remote areas. Data can be recorded by patients, clinicians or devices and may prompt clinical intervention.
Scanned Medical Record
A system that scans, indexes and digitises paper medical records. It’s often used during the switch to an eMR system to ensure historical records are available as digitised files. It can also be used to digitise new paper documents such as clinical assessments and patient consent forms.
Specialty Systems
Systems that provide specific functionality and data collection to support the requirements of a particular clinical diagnostic or treatment service. For example, there are unique systems for emergency medicine, neurology, paediatrics, cardiology, surgical theatres, cancer services or aged care services.
Supply Chain Systems
A supply chain system in healthcare involves managing the flow of medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, equipment, and other products from production to delivery in healthcare facilities. Key aspects in Australian healthcare include sourcing and procurement, inventory management, distribution and logistics.
Telehealth Services
Telehealth, or telemedicine, allows healthcare providers to conduct consultations remotely when in-person visits are not needed or cannot be attended due to distance. Services include diagnosis, treatment, follow-up care and prevention. Consultations can be between a clinician and a patient or between clinicians and may involve carers, interpreters and other healthcare professionals that form a multidisciplinary team.
Vendor Neutral Archives (VNAs)
Medical imaging technology that provides a centralised storage solution for medical images and associated data. Its standard format and interface allows it to be accessed in a vendor-neutral manner by other systems.
Consultation survey now open
The Procurement Guidelines Consultation Survey is now open until 31 August 2025 and we invite you to have your say. Your feedback is essential to ensuring the accuracy and completeness of existing content, identifying opportunities to enhance usability, improving user experience and suggesting additional content to maximise the value of the Guidelines.