The Sparked Symposium: Sparking the FHIR (May 2025)

The Sparked Symposium, a one-day virtual leadership event, provided the digital health community an opportunity to hear from digital health and standards leaders from Australia and across the globe. The event also celebrated the incredible contributions of the Sparked community and what has been achieved since the Sparked launch. This virtual event was designed not just for the Sparked community, but the Australian and international digital health community to see the progress the accelerator made. The progress of the Sparked community was further demonstrated by a vendor showcase to show AU Core, AU Patient Summary, and AU eRequesting interoperability standards in action.


Check out the Sparked Youtube channel for this and more!

Session 1: FHIR-ing around the globe

Hear from digital health leaders from Australia and around the world on the state of digital health, interoperability, and digital health standards.

Speakers

  • Daniel McCabe – Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
  • Steven Posnack – United States of America Department of Health and Human Services
  • Abhi Kalra – Canda Health Infoway
  • Daniel Vreeman – HL7 International


Session 2: Australia on FHIR

During the first half of this session, we welcome representatives from the Sparked partners – Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Digital Health Agency, CSIRO, and HL7 Australia. In the second half of the session, we will hear from the Sparked Jurisdiction community about how they are working with digital health standards and the Sparked program.

Session 2a: Sparked Partners

  • Simon Cleverley – Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
  • Peter O’Halloran – Australian Digital Health Agency
  • David Rowlands – HL7 Australia
  • Brett Sutton – CSIRO

Session 2b: Sparked Jurisdiction Community

  • Marc Belej – SA Health
  • Kendall Hockey – eHealth NSW
  • John Lambert – Department of Health, Tasmania
  • Jeff Ewen & Frank Patterson – Department of Health, Western Australia
  • Raelene Donovan – Queensland Health


Session 3: FHIR-ed up Community Showcase

Hear from the clinical, consumer, and industry community on how working toward national digital health standards is changing how they work and how it benefits consumer care. The session will include a vendor showcase, where you will hear how industry is participating in the Sparked program and how they are implementing AU Core, AU eRequesting, and AU Patient Summary.

  • Dr Chris Moy – GP and Australian Digital Health Agency Digital Health Advisor
  • Harry Iles-Mann – Health consumer advocate
  • Dr Kim Drever – Paeditrician
  • Jess White & Dr Fabrina Hossain – Best Practice Software
  • Philip Loya – Oracle
  • Monica Trujillo – Telstra Health
  • Michael Strachan – Magentus, with Sonic Healthcare, Healius, and Australian Clinical Labs
  • Andrew Aho – Intersystems


Session 4: Standards here, standards there, standards everywhere

In the final session of the day, we hear from international digital health standards leaders.

  • Grahame Grieve – HL7 International
  • Rachel Dunscombe – openEHR
  • Charles Gutteridge – SNOMED International
  • Herko Coomans – Global Digital Health Partnership