AU Core FHIR Implementation Guide R1
The first release of the AU Core FHIR Implementation Guide was published in February 2025.
This is a fantastic achievement, and a testament to the drive and contributions of the whole Sparked community.
What is the AU Core FHIR IG?
The AU Core FHIR Implementation Guide (IG) is a standard that defines how FHIR should be used in Australia, incorporating Australian-specific requirements to ensure interoperability across the healthcare system.
- Implementable standard for FHIR based interfaces for provider and patient information systems in Australia
- Data model and RESTful API interactions that set minimum expectations for a system to record, update, search, and retrieve core digital health and administrative information associated with a patient
- Standardise exchange of core clinical information through FHIR Implementation Guide
- Useful in many interactions, easy to implement, supports use case specialisation for clinical workflows without requiring redevelopment of the core
What does the Implementation Guide do?
- Promotes adoption through common implementation practices
- Sets minimum expectations for sharing core digital health and administrative data
- Provides a foundation for developing additional implementation guides for specific use cases.
The FHIR IG has been published in line with HL7 Australia FHIR IG governance requirements, including acceptance by the Sparked HL7 AU Core Technical Design Group and the HL7 Australia FHIR Work Group.
This FHIR IG is a foundational standard for interoperability, supporting use cases across Australia including:
- Prescribing
- Patient summary
- Chronic condition management
- eRequesting
- Aged Care
- Health checks
It is incredibly rewarding to see what is achieved when the Sparked community brings their time, expertise, curiosity, and enthusiasm to the challenge.
More information is available on the development of the AU Core FHIR Implementation Guide R1 and the AU Core FHIR Technical Design Group.
Ready for some fun facts on how we got here?
Overall, there were 371 pieces of feedback address through AU Core Release 1. Of this:
- 199 in AU Core Ballot for comment
- 108 in ballot for working standard
- 64 from the continuous feedback mechanism.
This feedback was provided by approximately 34 people, representing 13 different organisations.
Between September 2023 when the AU Core Technical Design Group started and January 2025 where the group approved Release 1, there have been:
- 36 AU Core Technical Design Group conference call meetings
- 18 information sessions
- 14 pre-consensus conference call meetings
- 5 Conformance Friday conference calls
- 5 HL7 AU Connectathons with AU Core as a track
- 3 full day testing events in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne
- 3 full day AU Core workshops as part of Sparked Community Co-Design Workshops.
This equates to approximately 6,020 hours of Sparked community participation in AU Core meetings, workshops, and events.
We are working on developing FHIR Implementation Guides for AU Patient Summary and AU eRequesting.
