An environment of cautious optimism seems to have descended on the players at the pointy end of the long-running saga of secure messaging interoperability – or lack thereof – with healthcare providers, software vendors, primary health networks and regulators now all working collaboratively on the issue.

There are still a number of challenges to be faced and the industry is only in the early stages of the proof of concept trials that the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) put out for expressions of interest (EOI) back in January, but the consensus of opinion seems to be that an interoperable system will happen, despite the fits and starts that have plagued the technology's development in Australia over the last five or six years.

For Tom Bowden, CEO of messaging vendor HealthLink and vice president of the Medical Software Industry Association, there are still some hurdles to overcome.