Telstra Health will be bringing Canada-headquartered Smile Digital Health's health data and data integration platform to Australia and New Zealand.

This comes as part of a recently signed strategic partnership between the two companies, aiming to accelerate interoperability and the secure exchange of information across health and aged care settings in the region. 

Based on HL7 FHIR standards and Clinical Quality Language, Smile's data platform enables seamless data aggregation, care gap analysis, and clinical data analytics at multiple points of care. 

WHY IT MATTERS

The Australian federal government, through the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), has been working with HL7 Australia for the consistent adoption of digital health standards, particularly FHIR, across the country's health system. ADHA is also collaborating with CSIRO to deliver a new terminology service and capability through the National Clinical Terminology Service. These collaborations contribute to the government's goal of achieving a more connected Australian health system by 2027 under the National Healthcare Interoperability Plan.

Telstra Health is lending a hand to this mission by partnering with Smile. In a statement, it said its partnership will support Australia's mandatory sharing of key health information across care settings. Through Smile's FHIR-native platform, Telstra Health can "enable public health authorities to assist in population health analysis," added Smile CEO Duncan Weatherston.

An established player in healthcare interoperability, Smile supports a range of FHIR and clinical reasoning requirements for federal agencies, universities, HIE companies and private enterprises globally. Its partners include the World Health Organization, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It has also supported the Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services in serving over 13 million patients. 

THE LARGER TREND

"At Telstra Health we believe FHIR standards will become more commonplace with emerging and future models of care," Jane Gilbert, integration lead of Telstra Health's Enterprise Technology​ division, said in a recent blog entry for the company.

Telstra Health first adopted FHIR standards in 2016 when it was incorporated into its Enterprise Provider Directory. It was later implemented across its digital products and services, including its GP management software Helix, the National Cancer Screening Register, and most recently, the Virtual Health Platform and the Kyra patient administration system, which were both launched last year. 

The health IT firm has also been working closely with the Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Digital Health Agency and CSIRO in the development of FHIR, SNOMED CT-AU and Australian Medicines Terminology. As an HL7 Australia Gold member, Telstra Health is also involved in bringing the International Patient Summary, a project of the Joint Initiative Council for Global Health Informatics Standardization, to the country.