This page is part of the AU Patient Summary (v0.5.0-preview: QA Preview) based on FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) R4. No current official version has been published yet. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

Home

Official URL: http://hl7.org.au/fhir/ps/ImplementationGuide/hl7.fhir.au.ps				Version: 0.5.0-preview
IG Standards status: Draft			Maturity Level: 1	Computable Name: AUPatientSummaryImplementationGuide
Copyright/Legal: Used by permission of HL7 International, all rights reserved Creative Commons License. HL7 Australia© 2022+; Licensed Under Creative Commons No Rights Reserved.

Introduction

AU Patient Summary (AU PS) is provided to support the use of patient summaries in HL7® FHIR®© in an Australian context. AU PS is based on IPS and AU Core, setting the minimum conformance expectations for implementing support for AU PS documents in systems.

A Patient Summary is:

• a health record extract comprising a core set of digital health and administrative data elements that provide a snapshot in time of a subject of care’s health information and healthcare.
• designed for supporting use case scenarios including planned and unplanned care, continuity of care and transition of care.

See The AU PS for more information on the purpose, scope, context, and use of AU PS.

Project Background

This implementation guide is under development through the AU PS FHIR IG project as part of the Sparked AU FHIR Accelerator.

The Sparked AU FHIR Accelerator is a community comprising government, technology vendors, provider organisations, peak bodies, practitioners, and domain experts, to accelerate the creation and use of national FHIR standards in health care information exchange.

AU PS Development Context

Figure 1: AU PS Development Context

The Sparked Clinical Design Group has begun identifying a set of core data groups and elements considered important for a minimal patient summary for inclusion in the AUCDI through an iterative process.

Additionally, a Patient Summary Clinical Focus Group (CFG), a sub-group of the Clinical Design Group, will develop the clinical scenarios and clinical workflow processes to support the development of the AUCDI and AU PS IG that have been elaborated into a set of example use cases to provide guidance on how AU PS could be implemented..

Success of this project will depend on active participation from members of the community who are looking to implement a patient summary capability in FHIR, whether you have already expressed your interest or are new to considering the AU PS project please complete this Registration form or email Sparked@csiro.au to actively contribute to the development of the AU PS FHIR IG.

Dependencies

Package hl7.fhir.uv.extensions.r4#5.2.0 This IG defines the global extensions - the ones defined for everyone. These extensions are always in scope wherever FHIR is being used (built Mon, Feb 10, 2025 21:45+1100+11:00)

Package hl7.fhir.uv.ipa#1.1.0 This IG describes how an application acting on behalf of a patient can access information about the patient from an clinical records system using a FHIR based API. The clinical records system may be supporting a clinical care provider (e.g. a hospital, or a general practitioner), or a health data exchange, including a national health record system. (built Wed, Mar 19, 2025 14:34+0000+00:00)

Package hl7.fhir.au.base#6.0.0-preview This implementation guide is provided to support the use of FHIR®© in an Australian context. (built Wed, Nov 26, 2025 07:22+0000+00:00)

Package hl7.fhir.uv.extensions.r4#1.0.0 This IG defines the global extensions - the ones defined for everyone. These extensions are always in scope wherever FHIR is being used (built Sun, Mar 26, 2023 08:46+1100+11:00)

Package hl7.fhir.au.core#2.0.0-preview This implementation guide is provided to support the use of FHIR®© in an Australian context, and defines the minimum set of constraints on the FHIR resources to create the AU Core profiles. This implementation guide forms the foundation to build future AU Realm FHIR implementation guides and its content will continue to grow to meet the needs of AU implementers. (built Thu, Nov 27, 2025 01:36+0000+00:00)

Package hl7.fhir.uv.tools.r4#0.8.0 This IG defines the extensions that the tools use internally. Some of these extensions are content that are being evaluated for elevation into the main spec, and others are tooling concerns (built Tue, Aug 5, 2025 20:09+1000+10:00)

How to Read This Guide

This guide is divided into several pages which are listed at the top of each page in the menu bar.

• Home: This page provides the introduction and scope for this guide.
• Conformance: These pages describe the set of rules to claim conformance to this guide including the expectations for Must Support elements in AU PS profiles.
  • General Requirements: This page defines requirements common to profiles used in this guide including the expectations for mandatory and Must Support elements in AU PS profiles.
  • Declaring Conformance: This page describes how to declare conformance to AU PS.
• The AU PS: This page describes the AU PS including structure, context of use, and localisation of the IPS.
• Guidance: These pages list the guidance for this guide.
  • General Guidance: This page provides guidance on using the profiles defined in this guide.
  • Sex and Gender: This page provides guidance on the representation of sex, gender, and related concepts.
  • AUCDI: This page maps AUCDI data groups and elements to FHIR artefacts in AU PS.
  • Relationship With Other IGs: This page provides guidance on the relationship between AU PS, AUCDI, and other implementation guides.
  • AU Variance Statement: This page documents the variance from AU Base and AU Core.
  • Comparison With Other National and International IGs: This page provides comparison between AU PS profiles and other national and international implementation guides.
  • Future of AU PS: This page outlines the approach to developing AU PS.
• Use Cases: These pages document a set of example use cases that assist in understanding how to implement AU PS.
  • Interstate GP Visit: This page documents the Interstate GP Visit - Patient Driven Patient Summary example use case.
  • Referral to Specialist and Allied Health: This page documents the Referral to Specialist and Allied Health - Clinician Driven Patient Summary (as Supplemental Information) example use case.
• Security and Privacy: This page documents the AU PS general security and privacy requirements and recommendations.
• FHIR Artefacts: These pages provide detailed descriptions and formal definitions for all the FHIR artefacts defined in this guide.
  • Artefacts Summary: This page lists the FHIR artefacts defined in this guide.
  • Profiles and Extensions: This page describes the profiles and extensions that are defined in this guide to exchange data. Each profile page includes a narrative description and guidance, and formal definition. Guidance typically focuses on the profiled elements but can include guidance on un-profiled elements to aid with implementation.
  • Terminology: This page lists the value sets and code systems supported in this guide.
  • Actor Definitions: This page defines the AU PS actors, AU PS Consumer and AU PS Producer.
• Examples: This page lists all the examples used in this guide.
• Support: These pages provide supporting material for implementation of AU PS.
  • Downloads: This page provides links to downloadable artefacts.
  • License and Legal: This page outlines the license and legal requirements for material in AU PS.
• Change Log: This page documents the changes across versions of this guide.

Collaboration

This guide is the product of collaborative work undertaken with participants from:

• HL7 Australia AU Core Technical Design Group
• HL7 Australia FHIR Working Group
• Australian FHIR Implementers Community

Primary Editors: Brett Esler, Danielle Tavares-Rixon, Dusica Bojicic.