Secure messaging enables interoperability and seamless confidential information sharing between healthcare providers. The Agency in collaboration with its industry partners has developed national secure messaging standards and artefacts based on a set of Australian and international standards. These define several roles that can be implemented by clinical information and secure messaging systems to enable secure, reliable, interoperable exchange of clinical documents between Australian healthcare providers.
Blueprint
The National Secure Messaging Network (NSMN) Blueprint describes the proposed operation of a national standards-based network of interoperable systems to allow any healthcare provider in Australia to discover any other healthcare provider and securely deliver clinical messages to them. The blueprint describes the key roles within the secure messaging national network and the capabilities required of each role, as well as providing examples of how specific implementations might fulfil those roles.
Conformance Assessment Scheme
The NSMN Conformance Assessment Scheme is a set of requirements and conformance assessment documents and processes. It is underpinned by the Interoperability Specification and provides the means for parties considering participating in the NSMN to clearly understand how they can do so, the capabilities required of their systems, and how they can demonstrate solution readiness.
Key resources
Australian Digital Health Agency
Secure Messaging v2.0
- Specifications | EP-3806:2023
- The Agency’s Secure Messaging product provides software developers with information and tools to assist in the implementation of the roles in the NSMN Blueprint.
- Download Secure Messaging v2.0
HL7 Australia
Provider Directory FHIR Implementation Guide
- Specifications | FHIR PD
- The HL7 Australia Provider Directory FHIR Implementation Guide is a RESTful API for searching directories of healthcare services and healthcare providers.
- View the FHIR PD Specification.
Diagnostics and Referral Messaging Localisation of HL7 Version 2.4
- Specifications | HL7AUSD-STD-OO-ADRM-2021.1
- Australian localisation of the international HL7 V2 Standard covering the Laboratory/Diagnostics/Clinical result reporting, laboratory/radiology ordering specification and patient referral.
- Download / view the HL7AUSD-STD-OO-ADRM-2021.1 Specification. For more information HL7 V2 Work Group.
Standards Australia
E-health secure message delivery
- Specifications | ATS-5822
- ATS-5822 defines a set of interfaces and associated application behaviours suitable for sending clinical messages over the Internet using standard Web services protocols.
- Download ATS-5822 from the SAI Global web site.
E-health XML secured payload profiles
- Specifications | ATS-5821
- ATS-5821 defines a set of interoperable mechanisms for representing secured XML data, including digital signing and encryption of secure messages.
- Download ATS-5821 from the SAI Global web site.
E-health web services profiles
- Specifications | ATS-5820
- ATS-5820 defines a set of interoperable mechanisms using SOAP Web services for interconnecting computer systems in digital health applications.
- Download ATS-5820 from the SAI Global web site.
Technical Tools
Clinical Package Validator
- Tool to check conformance of:
- HL7 v2.4 messages (ACK^I12, ACK^O01, ACK^R01, ORM^O01, ORR^O02, ORU^R01, REF^I12)
- HL7 v2.3.1 messages (ACK^T02, MDM^T02)
- Packaged CDA documents
- SMD messages
- Download the latest version of the Clinical Package Validator.
CDA creation and packaging tool
- Tool for generating and signing CDA documents, creating CDA zip packages, and creating MDM-T02 messages.
- See the "Clinical Document Packaging Client Library" tool on the ADHA's Open Source Sample Code Directory.
CDA rendering tool
- Tool for generating HTML for display of CDA documents (e.g. by a web browser).
- See the "Style Sheets (for HL7™CDA documents)" tool on the ADHA's Open Source Sample Code Directory.
MDM message tool
- Tool for creating MDM^T02 and ACK^T02 messages.
- See the "HL7™MDM Client Library" tool on the ADHA's Open Source Sample Code Directory.
SMD messaging tools
- Tools to support Secure Message Delivery (SMD) message construction and delivery.
- See tools prefixed with "Secure Message Delivery (SMD)" on the ADHA's Open Source Sample Code Directory.
Developer guides
NASH SHA-2 Certificates - Developer Guide
This Developer Guide is for the use of developers whose products connect to the Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service, My Health Record, Electronic Prescribing and Secure Messaging with a National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) PKI Certificate.
Open Source Sample Code Directory - GitHub and NuGet
The Agency provides sample code directly on GitHub, NuGet, and Maven.
National Secure Messaging Network (NSMN)
The National Secure Messaging Network is a standards-based network, developed by the Agency in collaboration with its industry partners.
National Secure Messaging Network - FAQs
Information about NSMN solution design, Provider Directories, message formats, message content, reference data, testing, technical support, standards, terminology and more.
How do I populate MSH-3, MSH-4, MSH-5 and MSH-6 segments of the outgoing REF-I12 and MDM-T02 messages to support successful message exchanges?
Successful message exchange is dependent upon the correct population of segments MSH-3, MSH-4, MSH-5 and MSH-6 of outgoing messages.