Orthoptists, along with many thousands of other allied health workers, can play a key role in creating a common language across Australia and harnessing the power of data to support a world-class health system, says Wendy Liang.
To most people the iconic sound of a fax machine is a relic from the past, but in many practices it is still used for sending and receiving important information, be it a referral, progress notes or test results.
For a sector that has achieved so many ground-breaking technologies in improving health it is somewhat ironic that we still rely on such outdated technology.
It hints at a deeper problem, that despite steady progress in digital health, much of Australia’s health information is still quite fragmented across different systems that can’t talk to each other.
The result is duplication, delay, and at times, clinical risk. We often spend valuable time chasing reports, retrieving blood test results and re-entering data while our patients get frustrated with repeating their history to multiple providers and keeping track of their physical letters and referrals.
To be able to have effective information sharing between providers isn’t just convenient, it’s essential.
The solution lies in true digital interoperability, the ability to have data move securely and meaningfully between providers regardless of the software they use or the type of care setting.
Recognising this, the Australian Government committed $15.7 million in the 2023–2024 Federal Budget to drive progress in this space.
Sparked is a community-driven initiative led by CSIRO’s Australian e-Health Research Centre, in partnership with the Australian Digital Health Agency, the Department of Health and Aged Care, and HL7 Australia.
The aim is to accelerate the development and adoption of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), which is a global standard for structuring and sharing healthcare data electronically.
Sparked localises that standard for the Australian context, building a foundation for secure, consistent, and interoperable information exchange between systems through a collaboration of clinicians, software vendors, government agencies, health organisations and standards bodies.
In short, making sure all the different stakeholders are using a common health “language”, even if they have differing origins and systems.
The latest Program Status report from September 2025 showed there were over 1,372 community members who have put in at least 23,485 hrs of work across 25 in-person workshops and 169 online meetings and webinars.
The project is still in its developmental stage but some of the key branches include:
Australian Core Data for Interoperability (AUCDI) – a collection of data models and groups that define clinical information and terminology.
For example, the term “refraction” unless clarified could potentially mean “subjective refraction”, “autorefraction”, “cycloplegic refraction” or even “retinoscopy” to some. AUCDI helps make sure that when we enter a term like “refraction” it can only be understood in one of the defined ways or it prompts us to choose a more specific term so there is no ambiguity. This ensures that no matter the software used, the term can be interpreted as data and transferred to another software system and mean the same thing for the next user.
AU Core / Patient Summary FHIR Implementation Guide – establishes minimum expectations and standardises coding for how a system should record, update, search, and access digital health and administrative information linked to a patient so that there is data consistency across systems.
Australian eRequesting Data for Interoperability (AUeReqDI) – complements and builds upon AUCDI but focuses on the use of electronic pathology and diagnostic imaging requests.
Allied health professionals number between 20,000 and 30,000 across Australia and are the second largest group in our health workforce, behind nurses and midwives. We frequently bridge the gap between acute care and community health yet can sometimes be overlooked when it comes to key decision-making in healthcare planning, which is often medically focused. Hence it is imperative for allied health to be part of this project as a reflection of the diversity of our workforce.
Orthoptics Australia submitted over 650 terms related to diagnosis and procedures as part of this project, of which at least 200 terms were identified as gaps, that is terms not yet registered in the current datasets. It is encouraging to be part of the solution and to ensure the terminology orthoptists use is reflected in the standards being built.
The end goal is improving patient outcomes and workplace efficiency by making it easier for professionals and patients to share information in order to support truly holistic multidisciplinary care.
If you no longer want to rely on your fax machine then consider joining one of the Sparked Design Working Groups. Participation is voluntary through virtual workshops and occasional in-person workshops across the country. Participants can contribute feedback or clinical examples to help shape datasets and guides. Visit sparked.csiro.au and navigate to “Get Involved” for more information.
With every added voice we are lighting the path towards a world-class health system.
About the author: Wendy Liang is an orthoptist at the Children’s Eye Centre in Sydney and a practitioner teacher at the University of Technology Sydney.
