Initiative: 2.2.07 - Establish regulatory requirements and changes to national accreditation standards to require private and public healthcare providers to share information to My Health Record by default, starting with diagnostic imaging and pathology.
Partners: Technology vendors and healthcare providers
Timely access to pathology and diagnostic imaging reports allows healthcare professionals to make informed clinical decisions for improved patient care. It also empowers Australians to take control of their own health journey.
For many years, sharing these reports to My Health Record was optional, not mandatory, for pathology and diagnostic imaging service providers. When the Australian Government launched a public consultation process in September 2023 for a new share-by-default model, around half of all pathology reports and one-fifth of all diagnostic imaging reports were being voluntarily shared to My Health Record.
The Health Legislation Amendment (Modernising My Health Record – Sharing by Default) Act 2025 has now established the legislative framework for sharing health information with the My Health Record system by default. Pathology and diagnostic imaging providers are intended to be the first required to do so. There will be exceptions to this rule including: when a healthcare provider has concerns for the health, safety or wellbeing of their patient, or when a consumer requests health information is not shared to their record. Implementation of rules around this legislation are still being determined through a consultation process.
Progress so far
Many pathology and diagnostic imaging provider networks have already implemented technology improvements to enable sharing by default.
To help other providers with cost effective solutions to upgrade existing technology, software developers are collaborating with pathology and diagnostic imaging providers to explore innovative solutions that meet the share-by-default mandate.
One example is Medical-Objects, which has worked closely with client pathology provider Histolab, and their Laboratory Information Software (LIS) supplier, McCauley Software, to upgrade existing secure information exchange software to automate the upload of pathology reports to My Health Record.
“It was a natural extension that we thought could be a good solution for independent and specialised service providers,” Medical-Objects CEO Lynden Crawford said.
“It's been very good having Histolab collaborating with us. There are some critical information components we needed to address to generate the My Health Record-conformant reports, and Histolab provided us with additional data and guidance so that the reports the system generated also met the lab’s business requirements.”
Despite the high laboratory throughput of complex analysis inherent to Histolab’s specialised services, McCauley Software and Medical-Objects were able to integrate the My Health Record upload process with almost no change to routine data entry and no impact on Histolab’s day-to-day operations.
Histolab has been sharing reports by default since the new functionality went live in November 2024. In the first 3 months alone more than 11,000 reports were uploaded to My Health Record.
Histolab Operations Manager Dubravka Miltiadou said the software development process was rewarding and the technical solution was economical.
“Instead of having to spend tens of thousands of dollars on new software, we’ve spent a few thousand dollars tweaking our existing system to comply with the share-by-default mandate,” she said.
"Medical-Objects and McCauley Software have designed a solution that has been incorporated into our everyday workflow and runs in the background of our operations. With a database trigger that automatically adds a copy to My Health Record, it requires minimal training for our staff. The upload process happens overnight, a fail-safe we built in so that it doesn’t interfere with our secure information exchange processes.
“Personally, I think share-by-default is a good thing. Instead of calling us to get the report, practitioners involved in a patient’s follow-up care can access it easily and directly through My Health Record.
“When I spoke to a nurse at the Victorian Melanoma Service unit who calls us regularly for reports, she was quite excited to hear about our progress. She said it would make things much easier. There are clear advantages.”
The software developers are now working with other clients to uplift their existing systems with share-by-default capabilities.
Visit the Agency website for a list of pathology and diagnostic imaging providers that are uploading to My Health Record.
Outcome 2: Person-centred
This initiative relates to National Digital Health Strategy Outcome 2: Person-centred, which is focused on ensuring that Australians are empowered to look after their health and wellbeing and equipped with the right information and tools.
Strategy Delivery Roadmap
For more information, refer to Roadmap Initiative 2.2.07.