My Health Record FHIR® Gateway

Overview

The My Health Record system gives individuals, their representatives, and their healthcare providers the ability to view their digital health record in one central online location. There are several mechanisms you can use to connect software to the My Health Record system, if you are unfamiliar with these mechanisms you can review the options here.

This guide is focused on the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR®) Gateway (also previously known as the Mobile Gateway). The FHIR® (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) APIs (REST-based) can currently be used for developers to build apps and other products which are targeted towards consumers. The diagram below represents the gateway between the My Health Record system and the end product.

The consumer authenticates themselves using their MyGov credentials. Your product will redirect the users to the MyGov authentication page and receive a token for authenticated users. Your product can then use this token to access the user’s My Health Record.

Throughout these guides a demonstration using Xamarin will be developed, although there are many platforms you can use to develop your product. When registering as a developer for the FHIR® Gateway you will need to define your app as either Mobile, Web, or Hybrid. Mobile would be native iOS/Android/etc, Web would be browser based, and Hybrid would be a combination of the two.

The complete FHIR® Gateway specifications include many interaction models, however only 2 of these interaction models are currently available to developers:

• Interaction model 1 and
• Interaction model 4

Both models are for consumer use and the primary difference is that interaction model 4 includes the use of an intermediary server which you would use to store information between retrieval from the My Health Record system and use within your product. The interaction models are presented in the diagram below.

Interaction models

Consumer / Self-Care

Consumer mobile app connects with the My Health Record system via the FHIR® gateway.

Consumer Connection via Platform

Consumer mobile app connects with the My Health Record system via an intermediary server (managed by the Mobile Application Developer), which orchestrates the flow of data between the mobile app, FHIR® gateway, or an end server (either managed by the Mobile Application Developer or third party).

Note: It is possible that the data accessed via the intermediary server may be presented to the end user in a web app (e.g. portal accessible via a web browser).

In the developer guides (below) interaction model 1 will be used to develop a mobile app. 

My Health Record FHIR® Mobile Gateway

This method is most commonly used for mobile or web-based applications. It is currently only available for consumer use. If you are creating consumer apps and wish to access some My Health Record content, then the FHIR® Gateway would likely be your preferred method to connect. Users authenticate using their MyGov credentials.

The Australian Digital Health Agency aims to increase adoption of the My Health Record by individuals as well as healthcare professionals by connecting the My Health Record platform to mobile healthcare applications (apps) via industry standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). To support that, the Agency is providing relevant technical information and resources for developers who might be new or established in the mobile healthcare application space.

The Agency mobile enablement program is using the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) Draft Standards in creating the mobile APIs. Mobile application developers can use various high level architecture approaches to integrate with the FHIR® Gateway of the My Health Record system.

What is the difference between the B2B and Mobile approaches?

The mobile enablement program has made use of the FHIR® Draft Standards in creating the mobile APIs. There is also a higher amount of granularity in the mobile solution in terms of the scope of the APIs – the APIs that have been developed for the mobile program are more detailed than the CDA which is extracted for B2B.

Access and Integration

The integration approach currently supported by the My Health Record System Operator is shown below.

For consumer access a consumer, must first log into my.gov.au and grant access to the application. This is done by redirecting to the my.gov.au login. Once the consumer has logged and granted access the token can be retrieved. 

Assessment framework for mHealth apps

The Assessment Framework for mHealth Apps is the result of extensive consultation (domestically and internationally). It is published here as national guidance and a useful reference tool for app developers working on mHealth apps for release in Australia. 

More: https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/about-us/strategies-and-plans/assessment-framework-for-mhealth-apps

Resources

If you would like to connect your software to the My Health Record FHIR® Gateway, you are in the right place.

The following Developer Guides will help you understand high-level concepts regarding the My Health Record system and the FHIR® Gateway, register as a developer for the Gateway, understand your testing obligations, understand guidelines regarding security, consent, incident management and app presentation and understand the content which will be delivered in these guides.