New Zealand’s Health Information Standards Organization is currently developing new standards for the exchange of interoperable health information within the country.
In an update on the progress of the Hira programme, Te Whatu Ora revealed that HISO is working on the New Zealand Interoperability Core Data (NZCDI). Designed according to the US Interoperability Core Data standard, this will be “the standard for the most commonly shared health data in clinical workflows and data access rights of consumers”.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
New Zealand is enabling full interoperability across its digital health ecosystem. In 2020, HISO released its Interoperability Roadmap, which serves as a guide to that goal. Its main product is the local version of the International Patient Summary. Adaptation of the ISO and HL7, HISO I International Patient Summary standardsPS is primarily a standard for forming and exchanging core personal health information.
This basic standard is at the core of New Zealand Patent Summary (NZPostscript), now available on My Health Record, gives consumers access to essential health information, such as test results, community-dispensed medications, and vaccination records. It can be accessed through a website or clinical applications.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
The first phase of Hira’s implementation is coming to an end next June. To date, the program has completed its goal of implementing My Health Record during this period. Launched in February, the platform replaced My Covid Record, allowing people to access and view more health information beyond their vaccination records, including details of their National Health Index and their children.
After the introduction of NZPSThe Hira team is currently developing NZPS – Clinical View to provide hospitals with secure access to patient health information anytime, anywhere.
Application programming interface will be released soon to enable direct integration of NZPS with more clinical applications, including clinical portals and practice management systems.
This API will be added to the upcoming New Zealand Health Digital Service Hub, which will replace the current Hira Marketplace next month. It will provide a wider range of services, incl Developer portal with API testing capabilities and identity and access protections.
About API, Te Whatu Ora recently released the manuscript of The first API standard for the New Zealand healthcare industry. It includes guidance and expectations for API design and development as well as API security. A technical standards committee within HISO has been established to provide feedback on this issue.
Meanwhile, the Hira team expects to onboard the first subscribers to the National Event Management Service, which provides near real-time notification of fatality events, by the end of the month 5.
