Redefining the Health Information Exchange in Australia and Beyond – Telstra Health and Smile Digital Health Announce Strategic Partnership for Interoperability

Telstra Health and Smile Digital Health have entered into a strategic partnership to bring Smile’s HL7® FHIR® first Health Data Platform solution and integration platform to Australia and New Zealand. The partnership complements the comprehensive footprint Telstra Health has across health and aged care settings in Australia and internationally, accelerating interoperability and the secure exchange of information across care teams.

Award winning health data platform company, Smile Digital Health, has developed a Clinical Data Repository which is recognised globally as a best-in-class solution for healthcare data harmonisation, integration and information sharing.

Smile is trusted by federal agencies, universities, governments, large Health Information Exchange (HIE) companies and private sector enterprises to deliver new service offerings and models of care, improve patient outcomes and increase organisational efficiency. Smile has worked with an array of leading organisations across the globe including the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), to support a range FHIR and clinical reasoning requirements.

Smile’s breakthrough innovation in clinical reasoning is its FHIR and Clinical Quality Language (CQL) based technology which enables seamless data aggregation, care gap analysis and clinical data analytics that are available at multiple points of care (and can be reflected in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) across the ecosystem).

Complementing Telstra Health’s specialist capabilities across the health and aged care sectors in Australia and globally, the partnership supports Telstra Health’s drive to power the future of connected healthcare by making information sharing in real time a reality.

Over the last decade Smile’s work on the Patient Summary, accelerating adoption of evidence-based clinical practices to the point-of-care and working with EHRs to implement regulatory mandates has come together in a unified solution offering that bolsters this partnership.

Leveraging Smile Digital Health’s unique technology and capabilities enables Telstra Health customers in the health and aged care sectors to benefit from successful digital transformations and to implement a FHIR-native technology stack that was built from the ground up to deliver interoperability and data exchange capabilities.

With Australia choosing HL7 FHIR as its healthcare standard, the partnership will also support the mandatory sharing of key health information across care settings. By offering the only scalable FHIR-native Health Data Platform that works with all HL7 FHIR resources, Smile creates the opportunity for a more integrated and interoperable health system. Telstra Health will be able to build upon Smile’s platform with additional components to further drive healthcare modernisation regionally and on a broader scale.

Telstra Health Managing Director Elizabeth Koff AM said,

“Partnering with Smile Digital Health brings best in class FHIR data interoperability and data exchange capabilities to Australia and New Zealand.

“Combined with Telstra Health’s solutions and unique footprint, the partnership enables us to provide the infrastructure and services for creating seamless and secure information exchange, improving patient care and better supporting clinicians and healthcare providers.

“The partnership brings Telstra Health even closer to our vision of realising a connected and improved digital health experience for all.”

Smile Digital Health’s innovative technology has also supported the Yale Center for Outcomes Research & Evaluation (CORE), Security Risk Solutions (SRS) and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL).

Furthermore, through its technology Smile has supported a government health agency in serving a population of 15.5 million patients, as well as the Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services (MiHIN) in serving a population of more than 13 million patients.

Duncan Weatherston, Chief Executive Officer, Smile Digital Health, said,

“What makes this partnership so beneficial to the Australian and international healthcare community is our innovative products and experience in supporting HIEs paired with Telstra Health’s existing health solutions. As experts in FHIR, we’ve been able to build a suite of solutions that make true healthcare interoperability a reality. And, when interoperability is achieved, care teams can provide, not only more efficient care, but better care too.

“Working with us to build a data modernisation infrastructure, Telstra Health can seamlessly connect currently disparate systems and EHRs, and enable public health authorities to assist in population health analysis.”