The service is designed to improve the transfer of patient information between health providers.
It will identify a person's name, date of birth, address and the names of their practitioners, and is the first step towards establishing a shared electronic health records system.
The contract between Medicare and the National E-Health Transition Authority will take around two years to implement.
Federal Minister for Human Services, Joe Ludwig, says it is not an access card and people can decide whether or not they want to be part of the service.
"Privacy is a great concern to Australians, particularly in relation to the collection and handling of personal health information. A new regulatory framework would be required," he said.
"This system would be built over approximately two years or thereabouts and it has been developed in consultation with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner."
Senator Ludwig says the program will potentially save lives.
"One of the challenges out there is actually health care providers transferring information confidently to another health care provider so that they can provide services," he said.
"At the moment, there is a range of electronic paper based systems and there is the potential for those things to get confused, or in fact lost in the system."
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Quelle/Source: ABC News, 12.01.2008
