Both parties have created health informatic standards for storing, retrieving and classifying recorded information across the broad range of health and medical fields.

Standards Australia's CEO, John Tucker, said the standards will assist Australian health authorities, service providers, institutions, information technology vendors and software developers. "This agreement formally expresses the role of each organization, and how we will cooperate and collaborate to expedite this work which has significant public interest implications," Tucker said. Since its inception in 2005, NEHTA has worked closely with Standards Australia to promote coordination and collaboration. NEHTA CEO, Dr Ian Reinecke, describes the agreement with Standards Australia as an operating framework and will provide a clear roadmap to move forward for all e-health stakeholders.

Details on the new standards can be found on NEHTA's Web site, www.nehta.gov.au.