This message is to seek expressions of interest to participate in a technical standards community Te Whatu Ora Data and Digital is looking to establish within the health sector. The community would provide feedback on API technical standards drafted by Te Whatu Ora before they are baselined and published via HISO.
Feedback from the sector is very important when standards are developed, to ensure the Standard is fit for purpose and easy to understand. Technology advocates come from various backgrounds, have diverse experiences, and offer broad perspectives. By listening and being open to different opinions and viewpoints, we can foster a rich and inclusive community that thrives through shared knowledge and collaboration.
We are in the final stages to release the following standards for review:
• API Design and Development Standard
• API Security Standard
Further work is taking place in the following areas:
• API Publishing Standard
• FHIR Decision Matrix – when FHIR is to be used versus an alternative.
Where a new standard is developed, or an existing standard updated, community members will be asked for input, following internal review. We’ve created a review forum to assess feedback provided and look to contact responders where further clarification on feedback is needed. Feedback on the standard will be online using GitHub. When we have completed the initial review and baselined the standard, the opportunity to provide feedback to a standard remains and amendments will be managed via change control.
Following internal and external review of the standard – and any amendments being made – it will go to the HISO committee for endorsement and publication.
People wanting to be part of the community can contact David Moon for more information about the process.
I am quite keen to be part of this. I work at Southern Cross Heathcare (SCHL) as Head of Architecture and I deeply care about integration within and outside of SCHL. Can you send me some more details about this? What is cadence? etc., I can be reached at muffadalh@schl.co.nz
We have now published the Standards Webpages for the API Standards for Design and Development (FHIR and non-FHIR) and API security – link is: https://apistandards.digital.health.nz/. We continue to review any feedback on these standards using GitHub and will be making amendments to this content as required, but these are now in the public domain.
Moving forward we are in the process of publishing additional standards requiring review adding to the standards already published and we still encourage you to participate.
We are currently working on:
Async API Standard - Asynchronous/Event-driven API standards documentation added to the existing Standards website. This will include updates to the FHIR Standard to reflect FHIR messaging standards.This will be available for your review from 15th April to 26th April
REST API Standard - different formats need to be consolidated into a single standard to direct API developers what is required to publish their APIs.This will be available for your review from 6th May to 15th May
FHIR Publishing Standard - produce a consolidated documentation set reflecting the standards for FHIR API providers. This includes details on how to publish packages to the FHIR registry.This will be available for your review from 6th May to 15th May
Async Publishing Standard - produce a consolidated documentation set reflecting the standards for Async API providers.This will be available for your review from 27th May to 7th June (this date is in review, and might be earlier)
To review these draft standards, there is a link to the draft content (https://apistandards.digital.health.nz/draft/) where we will be loading content to commence reviews – when content is made available via the Draft channel, you have the ability to review the standard in development and provide feedback using the ‘Raise issue’ link which will take you to GitHub to raise issues. Note that you will need a GitHub account to log issues.
Review Period: we expect each review period to be 2 weeks for each new standard content loaded and is ready to start review. Note that feedback can be raised after this 2 week period, however this feedback may not be taken into account when the standard is initially published and may be applied at a later date. It’s likely that we will go to HISO for final endorsement when all standards have been reviewed and updated rather than individually.
How can you participate:
Familiarise yourself with the content available today – get a feel to the level of detail in the standard being written from the content already published
When advised the draft content is available, review the draft content and provide constructive feedback to what would be an appropriate change to the content (via GitHub) – note target dates above
Where needed, provide support / collaborate any changes to the content based on your feedback to what would be an appropriate change