1 Addressing interoperability in e-health: an Australian approach Zoran Milosevic Deontik Pty Ltd Brisbane , Australia. zoran@deontik.com Abstract This paper describes the use of the ISO ODP family of standards [1][2][3] to address interoperability issues in the Australian e-health environment. The Australian health system has a specific institutional structure and funding model involving a combination of federal, state, territory and local government jurisdictions along with the private sector. This arrangement requires a thorough understanding of legislation, regulation and other policies, as well as governance models and the collaborative nature of healthcare businesses to inform the building of interoperable and sustainable IT systems. The aim is to provide better, safer and more efficient service delivery than what current silo-based approaches deliver. The ODP standards provide a valuable conceptual basis for addressing diversity, richness and evolvability of such a complex system, embracing both human actors and IT systems. The ODP Enterprise Language provides core concepts for describing the organisational context for e- health systems, while the ODP-RM architecture framework allows for the description of various e-health stakeholders’ concerns, from organisational, information and technical perspectives. Further value of the standard comes from rigorous conformance and compliance guidelines. Keywords: Interoperability, e-Health, ODP Standards. 1. Introduction The Australian health system has a specific institutional structure and funding model involving a combination of federal, state, territory and local government jurisdictions along with the private sector. This structure requires a thorough understanding of the policy environment, covering legal, regulatory and other enterprise policies and governance models, as well as of the collaborative nature of healthcare business, to inform building fit-for-purpose, sustainable and interoperable e-health systems. In this context, interoperability needs to be understood in broader terms than the traditional technical notion, i.e. in terms of serving the purpose of providing better, safer and more efficient healthcare delivery. This broader context is needed because, in e-health systems: • there are many actors with different skills and knowledge, collaborating in a team that is setting and respecting a multitude of clinical and administrative polices, while increasingly relying on the capabilities of new technologies; besides, the actors have varying levels of maturity both in terms of new technology adoption and the organisational change needed to support new practices; • there is an increasing need to support the cross- organisational and cross-jurisdictional nature of healthcare services to ensure continuity and patient- centric healthcare; IT systems can play an important role in facilitating more effective healthcare services in such an environment; • ‘change is the only constant’ is a dominant principle, from both the clinical and technological sides, requiring an approach to treating interoperability as a continual state of readiness to embrace new technologies, clinical knowledge and practices, or changes in legislative and social environments. In general, interoperability is taken to mean ‘the ability of a system or process to use information and/or functionality of another system or process by adhering to common standards’ [4]. Further, ‘system’ or ‘process’ in e- health will often involve humans, so the interoperability must address human and societal issues in the course of using information and functionality from other systems, e.g. the ability to participate in standardised business processes, to understand and use information or results of activities