AU Core & FHIR R4: Planning an Australian Healthcare Integration

What Australian digital health software teams should clarify when planning FHIR R4 and AU Core integrations.

Start with the receiving system’s exact contract

AU Core defines minimum expectations for FHIR resources and interactions in an Australian context. It does not mean every Australian healthcare product accepts every AU Core resource or endpoint. Obtain the target system’s implementation guide and conformance expectations.

Confirm the version and context

AU Core 2.0.0 is a published working-standard release built on FHIR R4 (4.0.1) as at October 2026. Your specific programme may reference another release; use the agreed version rather than a continuous-build page as a production specification.

Align terminology, identifiers and testing

Document healthcare identifiers, coding systems, resource profiles, cardinality requirements, patient matching, authentication and error behaviour relevant to the receiving system. Validate against representative synthetic data.

Local privacy and governance still apply

A FHIR implementation does not itself establish compliance with Australian privacy or healthcare information-handling requirements. Define data location, permitted use, access control and who is responsible for regulatory interpretation.

What to prepare for an engineering scoping call

Provide the intended workflow, products involved, applicable guides, API specifications, non-sensitive payload examples and initial acceptance criteria. Technical implementation experience in one healthcare market is not automatically proof of Australian programme-specific production delivery.