The federal government has enlisted Adelaide-based IT services provider Chamonix to build a consumer-facing mobile app for the My Health Record.
The Australian Digital Health Agency awarded Chamonix a $2.1 million contract for the work this week as part of a wider overhaul of the infrastructure supporting the ehealth record.
The app is intended to improve access to information through the My Health Record, complementing existing digital channels, including the online government services portal myGov.
An ADHA spokesperson told iTnews the app would be available for download in early 2022, though the first iteration will “be a read-only interface to My Health Record”.
It will connect to the ehealth record via the system’s Fast Health Interoperability Resources (FHIR) gateway”, with authentication to be done through user’s myGov accounts.
A future version of the app is expected to have “upload functionality” and additional features, according to the spokesperson.
Chamonix, which has around 130 employees, was the first to develop a third-party app, Healthi, to connect to the My Health Record in 2016.
Like the planned My Health Record app, the app also provides read-only access to a user’s ehealth record.
The ADHA went looking for an app developer in July to improve accessibility to information in the My Health Record, including the records of dependents or individuals who have permitted access.
The agency said it has witnessed a “significant increase in consumer demand” in the last 12 months, citing a 500 percent increase in the number of pathology reports viewed by consumers.
The need to provide Australians with easy access to Covid-19 digital vaccination certificates, pathology test results and other information on vaccine bookings is also a driver for the app.
At the time of the tender, ADHA said it was working on a “Covid-19 dashboard” to display a person’s real-time Covid status using an animated tick in either green, amber or red.
An individual's status will be calculated by combining data from their latest Covid-19 test results – which will be extracted from pathology reports – and the Australian Immunisation Register.
Chamonix’s app contract comes as Deloitte continues to work to deliver the health information gateway that will replace the Oracle API gateway that underpins the My Health Record.
