Created by HL7 Australia Admin, last modified on 11 Aug, 2023

Mission

The HL7 AU FHIR Working Group's (FWG) mission is to provide oversight for FHIR specifications produced via the AFCP (Australian FHIR Community Process).  This includes approval, assurance and harmonisation of FHIR specifications content. We also assure that HL7 AU FHIR work products are produced in a manner consistent with the Australian FHIR Community Process.

The working group reports to the HL7 AU Board and works with the AFCC (Australian FHIR Coordination Committee) to achieve the vision and objectives of open health standards in Australia according to the HL7 Australia Board published Australian FHIR Management Framework.

Charter

The FWG is responsible for overseeing the execution of FHIR standards development within HL7 AU by assuring that the efforts of the Working Group are in line with the strategy set forth by the Board.

The FWG oversees the development of AU-realm specific HL7 FHIR consensus-based standards specifications.

The FWG develops and maintains the processes HL7 AU follows to develop consensus-based FHIR standards specifications, this is based on the HL7 International Governance and Operations Manual.

The FWG may sponsor and administer subcommittees implementing specific work activity, this includes:

  • Approval of scope of activity and nature of subcommittees on commencement.
  • Assurance of associated FHIR specifications content.
  • Assurance of FHIR community process implementation by subcommittees  with respect to methodology and specifications content.
  • Harmonisation of Australian FHIR specification content and effort across subcommittees .

Subcommittees may be established for delivery of specific specifications related to a period of development activity, this may be for any project mission.  Some current drivers include FHIR accelerator objectives, National Secure Messaging Network (NSMN), regulatory requirements and industry initiatives.

Subcommittees may be established for ongoing work in specialised scopes of activity where the subcommittee is delegated responsibility for oversight of artifacts in the scope of these groups.

Subcommittees must comply with the governance principles and practices of the FWG.

The FWG will (and expects any subcommittees to):

  • Recognise and respect the contributions and ideas of the individuals who make up the subcommittee.
  • Assure that HL7 AU FHIR standards are developed on a solid architectural foundation that promotes consistency and interoperability.
  • Evaluate that FHIR specifications are technically sound at the request of the Board and identify and provide recommendations.
  • Assure that HL7 AU work products are produced in a manner consistent with the Australian FHIR Community Process.
  • Maximize sharing and "re-use" of  HL7 International FHIR work products and HL7 AU FHIR work products.
  • Address HL7 AU inter-group conflict within the scope of this Working Group as needed.
  • Recognise and administer resolution activities when work products are presented to the HL7 AU membership for balloting content.




Move this to AU Governance and Operations manual as explicit approach in general; this was noted as a variant from HL7 International Governance and Operations Manual default practices.

Decision Making Practices Addendum

Electronic Voting

  1. Decisions may be resolved electronically.
  2. Electronic voting may be requested for input on decision topics and for the approval of documents including endorsement of Project Scope Statements (PSS), Notice of Intent to Ballot (NIB), ballot lists, and other documents as determined by the FWG.
  3. A list of routine decisions may be distributed to the FWG membership with options to vote affirmative, negative, abstain, or refer to conference call. A comment is required for a negative or refer to conference call vote.   
  4. The typical voting period is for at least working 3 days. A co-chair may choose to extend the voting period. Negative or Referred items will be on the agenda for the next FWG meeting.
  5. Quorum for electronic voting is the same as the quorum for a regular meeting + if the issue being voted on applies to a product that had a dedicated sub-group, that group should have at least 1 member present.
  6. If quorum has not been achieved, the vote will be taken in the next FWG meeting.
  7. If the issue being voted on applies to a product that has a dedicated sub-group, that group should bring forward the opinion of the Group on the issue.