AUCDI and the Australian Patient Summary

A patient summary is a standardised collection of an individual’s health information and healthcare. Rather than an entire health record, it is the minimum sufficient data to facilitate safe, quality, and efficient care. Patient summaries can enhance patient safety by ensuring critical information is readily accessible when it’s needed most and enables clinicians across different health sectors and health domains to provide more informed, consistent care.

The International Patient Summary (IPS) is a globally recognised patient summary standard. In 2021, the G7 nations committed to working towards the adoption of the International Patient Summary with several international efforts being currently underway to drive adoption, including the European Union, USA, Canada, and New Zealand. Multinational vendors with presence in Australia are at various stages of implementation of the IPS.

In 2024, work has begun on the Australian Patient Summary FHIR IG (AU PS IG) as project of Sparked AU Core TDG, with the Australian Patient Summary FHIR IG Project being established in October 2024. The first iteration of the AU Patient Summary will be based upon the IPS, but is NOT the IPS, allowing for localisations required to meet Australian requirements while still ensuring alignment to the IPS specification.

AUCDI contains data groups and data elements that were identified by the Sparked CDG as important for inclusion in the first iteration of a patient summary specification, knowing that further enhancement in scope and depth of a patient summary will be considered as part of an ongoing, iterative process. Data groups and data elements from the AUCDI will be picked up through the AU Core and the parts identified as relevant to the patient summary context will be used as inputs into AU Patient Summary.