The following frequently asked questions relate to the use of Healthcare Identifiers in Health Software Systems.
How do I gain access to the HI Service Software Vendor Test (SVT) Environment?
Register on the Health Systems Developer Portal provided by Services Australia. HI Service - Registration and Certificates guide for more information.
What is the assessment process for healthcare identifiers?
To minimise the risk to clinical safety, privacy, and security arising from the use of healthcare identifiers, software systems must undergo testing before being approved to connect with the HI Service. There are two testing phases that must be completed:
1: HI Notice of Connection (NOC) testing with Services Australia.
To get started, please register with Services Australia via their Health Systems Developer Portal. Please refer to the HI Service - Test and Go Live Developer Guide for more information.
Note: Even though this testing phase is managed by Services Australia, we highly recommend that you email the Agency ([email protected]) when you decide to integrate your application with the HI Service. This will help the Agency assist you with your development and testing process and address any issues you may be experiencing.
2: HI Conformance testing with the Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency).
Once HI NOC has been passed, please submit a completed:
- HI Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS). This form identifies the use cases and associated requirements you intend to implement and will be tested against.
- HI Conformance Test Specification (CTS). This contains the test cases that you are required to undertake for the use cases you are implementing.
Please refer to our HI Service - Test and Go Live Developer Guide to obtain the form, the test specification and corresponding test data.
HI Conformance testing is divided into two parts:
- Self-assessment: i.e. test your software against the Agency’s Conformance Test Specification and is self-paced.
- Agency observed assessment: once you submit your results to the Agency, they are reviewed for readiness and three observed sessions will be booked, typically done via MS Teams and across the span of a week. Retesting may be required if any issues are identified.
Upon completion, the Agency will complete a Test Summary Report, request your signature on HI Vendor Conformance Declaration which will then be submitted to Services Australia who will grant the software HI Production Access – this typically takes 1-2 weeks.
Which Business Use Cases apply to my software system?
The business use cases that apply depend on the scope of your software system.
For example, software designed for front office administration typically implement UC.010 - Register patient and UC.015 - Update patient health record in order to obtain a patient’s individual healthcare identifier (IHI), and UC.131 - Search for HPIs in the HI Service to obtain the healthcare provider’s individual identifier (HPI-I).
Back-office batch software may want to implement UC.025 - Bulk update of IHI details.
Please refer to our Healthcare Identifiers Service - Support Documents for more information.
My application does not meet all the mandatory requirements in a business use case I am implementing. Is this a problem during testing?
Requirements are categorised as either mandatory, conditional, or recommended.
- You must conform to all mandatory requirements in a business use case to ensure a successful test outcome.
- Any conditional requirements are conditional in the context of the business use case you are implementing. If the condition is present, the requirement must be met.
- Recommended requirements are additional test cases a software developer can choose to implement. If you have selected recommended requirements, the Agency test analyst will conduct the necessary testing. It is best practice for health software to conform to recommended requirements.
What do the Agency test analysts need?
The Agency test analyst will require a technical developer to be present for the duration of the testing. This will ensure that all complex test cases and enquiries relating to simulating scenarios can be resolved in a timely manner.
Do I require a separate test environment built prior to testing?
Yes. We recommend testing is conducted in a separate test environment, not your development environment. The test environment will need to support video conferencing or desk-top sharing (like MS Teams or Zoom etc.) so the Agency test analysts can observe the software being tested.
Should we complete a self-test prior to scheduled testing date?
Yes. You will first submit the Implementation Conformance Statement which will tell us your scope, then you will execute the mandatory (and any applicable conditional) tests in the Conformance Test Specification. Once your self-assessment has passed the tests, submit the CTS to the Agency for review and to book in for the observed portion.
Please submit the statement via [email protected].
What are the common issues identified during testing?
- Mandatory requirements - You must comply with all mandatory requirements, even if you think the data you retrieve from the HI Service is not required. The requirements are specifically designed to capture problems within the HI Service such as duplicate IHIs.
- Warnings and alerts - The requirements use the terms ‘Warning’ and ‘Alert’ in very specific scenarios. For example, an alert must place a complete halt on the operator’s activity sequence and cause an action to be completed to acknowledge the alert before proceeding.
- Audit and error logs - It is important to read the requirements carefully to ensure mandatory and conditional requirements are met. Audit and error logs are intentionally designed to aid troubleshooting when issues are found in the HI Service data.
- Resolved status - Many software developers fail the test cases for resolved status. In many cases, if an operator receives a resolved number status from the HI Service, they are required to revalidate the new number before replacing the old number.
- Failed test cases - If any issues are identified, the Agency test analyst will discuss them with you after the tests have been completed. Once you have made the required changes to your software, retesting can be conducted. The Agency test analyst will continue to work with you until you achieve a conformant test report.