Sparked AU Patient Summary Clinical Focus Group

The Sparked Australian Patient Summary Clinical Focus Group (AU PS CFG) is a sub-group of the Sparked Clinical Design Group (CDG) which will provide support to enable to the development of Patient Summary within the Sparked program.

The AU PS CFG will be a time limited committee until 30 June 2025, subject to the Sparked Program requirements.


Terms of Reference

The role of the Sparked AU PS CFG is to provide clinical guidance and expertise on Australian patient summary information to support the Sparked program, such as:

  • Clinical workflows and clinical scenarios
  • Supporting the development of testing data for Sparked AU Patient Summary FHIR IG Project Team, such as:
    • Nomination/validation of testing personas/profiles from the Sparked test data.
    • Input & prioritisation of test data requirements, e.g. clinical histories, medications, procedures, problems/diagnosis, etc.
  • Deep dive to understand the specific AU PS clinical drivers and provide feedback on items flagged for detailed discussion by the AU Patient Summary FHIR IG project team and/or by the Sparked community, e.g. detailed workflows, data flows, challenges, opportunities, etc.
  • Provide clinical input and insight to AU Patient Summary FHIR IG Project Team as required
  • Support AUCDI development as required by the Sparked CDG
  • Contribute advice and support for developing materials to enable to the clinical education and understanding of Sparked AU Patient Summary, if required.

Broader policy discussions regarding reforms, implementation and development of an Australian Patient Summary, not relevant to the Sparked Program.

Meetings will be held as required to support the Sparked AU Patient Summary program of work.

It is expected that meeting may be held on a fortnightly and/or monthly basis during the initial development stages, and transition to a monthly or bi-monthly basis as required during the later development stages.

Focus group meetings may be established as required to progress specific work.

The AU PS CFG meetings are time limited and shall be sponsored and chaired by an AU PS CFG member.

The AU PS CFG is a sub-group of the Sparked Clinical Design Group, that will not be a decision-making body.

All minutes, artefacts and outputs from the AU PS CFG will be made available to the members of the Sparked CDG.

Additionally, relevant outputs shall be shared directly to the Sparked Technical Design Group/s (TDGs) and Sparked AU PS FHIR IG Project Team as required to support the development of AU Patient Summary.

The Sparked FHIR Accelerator Governance structure is outlined below:

*note: for information on the AU Patient Summary FHIR IG Project team, please refer to the HL7 confluence page, available here: AU Patient Summary FHIR IG Project – HL7 Australia

The Development Context for how the AU PS CFG shall support and interact with the Sparked CDG’s development of the AU Core Data for Interoperability (AUCDI) and the Sparked AU PS FHIR IG Project Team is outlined in below diagram:

Th AU PS CFG will be made up of a maximum of 20 independent clinical experts or consumer representative members. Members have been selected to span the patient summary clinical perspectives from a variety of different clinical professions (e.g. doctors, nurses, allied health, aboriginal health workers, etc) and care settings (primary, acute, aged care, community, etc)

Membership of the AU PS CFG will comprise of selected Sparked CDG members that submitted an Expression of Interest (EOI) via the Sparked AU Patient Summary Clinical Focus Group EOI MS Form that was made available to the Sparked Clinical Design Group members and Sparked community.

All discussions in the AU PS CFG should be done so without prejudice, in a collaborative and inclusive manner to enable participants to genuinely share insights, expertise and advice.

Observers may be invited to attend to gather insights on group dynamics, participant engagement, and overall discussions.

Observers should refrain from participating in or influencing the discussions.

Members are expected to declare any conflicts of interest, where they arise.

All minutes, artefacts and outputs from the group will be made available to the broader Sparked community via the Sparked CDG, Sparked AU Patient Summary FHIR IG Project Team and/or Sparked Technical Design Group(s) as required to enable and support the Sparked AU Patient Summary program of work.

Members may withdraw from the AU PS CFG at any time. It is important to note that data collected up to the point of withdrawal remains a valuable part of the project, and personal information will be managed with care, respecting privacy and confidentiality. To withdraw from the Sparked program or any of its design groups, please email Sparked@csiro.au.


Need more information or have a question that isn’t answered by our FAQs? Fill in our contact form or email the team at Sparked@csiro.au.