HIQA has published an updated version of the Guidance on Messaging Standards for Ireland. Messaging standards, which enable information to be shared electronically, play an important role in the development of eHealth. The purpose of this guidance published today is to provide direction on healthcare messaging standards in Ireland. Based on a review of international and national best practice, this guidance provides the eHealth community in Ireland with the direction of standards development that HIQA endorses. This will support better decision making and consistency around the future eHealth agenda.

HIQA’s Director of Health Information and Standards Rachel Flynn said: “Safe, reliable healthcare depends on access to and use of information that is accurate, valid, reliable, timely, relevant, legible and complete. Messaging Standards facilitate the sharing of clinical, administrative and patient information in a timely manner, ensuring the right information is available to treating healthcare professionals and ensuring that patients get the correct treatment at the appropriate time.”

HIQA is currently working on developing standards to enable information to be shared electronically. These standards are commonly referred to as interoperability standards, which include messaging standards. HIQA’s technical standards team develops the essential foundations required to enable eHealth in Ireland and progress Ireland’s eHealth strategy and the programmes of work being undertaken by eHealth Ireland.

Ms Flynn continued “Messaging standards can increase the time healthcare professionals can spend on frontline delivery of services to patients by reducing reliance on traditional means of information sharing such as record transcribing and hard copy posting of referrals and diagnostic results.”

ENDS

For further information contact:

Suzanne O’Brien, Communications Manager, HIQA, 01 814 7488 / 087 6241216, sobrien@hiqa.ie

Notes to the editor

• This Guidance document form part of HIQA’s work through its health information function to ensure that high quality health and social care information is available to support the delivery of care to patients in a timely manner and in planning and monitoring of services throughout Ireland.
• The guidance document supports the delivery of the eHealth Strategy for Ireland and the programmes of work being developed by eHealth Ireland.
• Messaging standards outline the structure, content and data requirements of electronic messages to enable the effective and accurate sharing of health information. A messaging standard specifies the structure and order of the elements that make up a message such as the patient information, the laboratory information, the test undertaken and the results.
• This guidance was developed to inform key stakeholders, including public and private service users, vendors, purchasers and implementers of health information systems, healthcare providers, the wider health informatics community and any other interested parties, about the proposed future direction of messaging standards in Ireland and to encourage wider participation in standards development. The guidance is targeted principally at those involved in specifying the requirements for and the development and implementation of new eHealth applications, both locally and nationally.
• During the development of this Guidance document, a review of international and national best practice was undertaken. The review identified the emergence of an emerging standard called Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), which was developed by the Health Level 7 standards development organisation. A draft Guidance document for consultation was developed and a targeted consultation was undertaken. The Guidance document was updated following the targeted consultation.