The Australian Digital Health Agency has released a five-year roadmap to improve the use of the national healthcare identifier in Australia.
Developed with the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care and Services, the National Health Care Identity Roadmap 2023-2028 outlinesSpecific actions to be taken to implement health care identifiers, which are unique numbers used to identify individuals, health care providers and health care organisations. These identifiers are issued through a national system, HI Service, operated by Services Australia.
WHY IT MATTERS
The federal government envisions a future where national health care identifiers are widely available and used by all individuals and health care providers in all health information exchanges and digital health projects that involve sharing health information. It also aims to reduce or eliminate mismatches in the identity of individuals; streamline the management of identifiers and related documents, such as digital certificates; and enable individuals to use identifiers to control their information and manage their privacy.
“The increased adoption of the national healthcare identifier will mean Australians won’t have to re-tell their story when they move to another health system,” explains Simon Cleverley, assistant secretary for digital health at DoHAC.
“Access to real-time information will also assist healthcare providers in making informed clinical decisions and care plans.”
In the coming years up to 2028, the government will pursue the activities outlined in the roadmap, focusing on legislative changes, service improvements, technical updates and operational enhancements.
It aims to reform the HI Act, implement a national system for assigning unique health care identifiers; publish the federal government’s policy position on the application of HI Services; develop simple guidance on the HI Act; create policy templates and guidance on the use of health care identifiers; and issue policies on use health care identifier in consumer applications.
Work to improve the HI Service includes improving data matching (including for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples) and data quality, reviewing existing messages and responses, improving search considerations, creating personal healthcare identifiers for infants and allows consumers to enter or verify registration data and easily update their information.
On the technical side, the government seeks to create guidance for organizations on appropriate structures, conduct conformity assessments and updates to HI Services, update technical standards, HI Services architecture scalability, and develop guidelines on clinical system architecture and functional requirements.
To improve operations, a stakeholder engagement and communication plan and educational materials for the HI Service will be developed. There will be a review of support arrangements and processes for monitoring and feedback and continuous improvement of the HI Service. Finally, there will be a review and update of the HI Service management structure and processes.
THE BIGGER CONTEXT
The creation of the National Healthcare Identity Roadmap is part of the actions outlined in the National Healthcare Interoperability Plan 2023–2028. The plan also seeks broad adoption belong to healthcare identifier “to create a connected and interoperable health system where every individual, healthcare provider and organization can be identified accurately and quickly.”
Part of ADHA’s Engagement Plan is to work with industry. In 2022, the agency partnered with Health Level Seven Australia to improve the adoption of FHIR standards across the Australian health system.
ON PROFILE
“Healthcare identifiers are key to the safe, secure and seamless sharing of information across the nation’s healthcare system in near real-time. They play a central role in the evolution of digital health and will empower Australian healthcare consumers to access seamless care across all healthcare settings in every corner of Australia,” Peter O’Halloran, chief digital officer at ADHA, said in a statement to the media.
