The ADHA Releases A Report That Shows The Situation With Digital Health Standards Is Worse Than We Could Have Imagined.

Following the Digital Health Standards webinar which happened last Tuesday the 28^th July, 2020 the ADHA released – as it said it would – some documentation of Standards and Interoperability.

Here is a link to the notification of the webinar.

https://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2020/07/somehow-this-seems-about-three-or-more.html

In an e-mail later the links were provided to the recording of the session and the reports

Post Webinar E-mail

Dear David,

We would like to thank you for attending today’s webinar on the Perspectives and considerations in digital health standards, and standards selection. Over 150 participants attended the session and many valuable questions and comments were contributed.

The Australian Digital Health Agency (Agency) announced through the webinar that a number of reports related to standards work will be made available. To that end, reports relating to interoperability can now be accessed here on the Agency website.

Attendees can also view a recording of the webinar on our event page. Please force refresh to load the most recent version of this page.

If you would like to be involved with the upcoming consultation sessions to further discuss the standards selection process development for digital health, please contact Greg Moran, Director at AIDH.

We thank you again for your interest and participation.

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Here is the page referencing what was released.

Interoperability Reports

A function of the Agency is to contribute to development, monitoring and management of specifications and standards to maximise effective interoperability of public and private sector digital health systems.

Over the past four years, the Agency has commissioned reports in relation to standards and interoperability, with input from consultation from healthcare providers, consumer groups, industry and the standards community. These reports reflect advice from external experts to the Agency. While these reports have shaped the approach and thinking in this area, they do not reflect the Agency’s position. Their publication does not indicate the Agency’s view on, or acceptance of recommendations.

The Agency’s ongoing work on standards and interoperability will continue to be guided by the National Digital Health Strategy and planned engagement with jurisdictions and key stakeholders.

• Standards Development Model v1.1 2020 (PDF, 2.81 MB)
• Strategic Interoperability Framework Appendices v3.0 2017 (PDF, 5.20 MB)
• Strategic Interoperability Framework Summary Report v3.0 2017 (PDF, 632 KB)
• Strategic Interoperability Report Executive Deck v3.0 2017 (PDF, 1.71 MB)
• Strategic Interoperability Report v3.0 2017 (PDF, 4.75 MB)

Here is the page link:

https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/about-the-agency/publications/reports/interoperability-reports

It is the 2020 document that must be reviewed and absorbed.

Basically it suggests that the ADHA has pretty much dropped the Standards ball over the last few years and that a new specialist organization with reasonable expertise and a sensible budget needs to be established to move forward.

The document runs to over 150 pages and is a wonderful summary of what has happened, what has gone wrong and a possible way forward. The importance of having a comprehensive, maintained and evolving range of Digital Health Standard is well explained and supported.

I am not surprised the ADHA has sat on the document for six months given how deficient they have been shown to be in this report – not that many of us did not know already! It is also clear why many Digital Health insiders saw it as important for this report to be made public. Pity the report will not be read and responded to by those who have the power to use it to make a difference - dream on I guess! I wonder is the report and the webinar the very early start of something positive?

Mandatory reading and well done David Rowlands on the depth and quality of your work.

David.