A new national digital health strategy is set to be signed off by the board of the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) by November and a plan for developing standards for system interoperability and for national secure messaging is due by March, acting ADHA CEO Richard Royle said.

Addressing the Health Informatics Conference (HIC) in Melbourne yesterday, Mr Royle said if interoperability standards and the long-standing impasse over secure messaging are not solved, the health system will continue to be stuck with information silos.