The funding was awarded in yesterday's 2007-2008 South Australian state budget and comes after extensive lobbying by the department over the past few years.
According to a South Australian Treasury capital statement issued as part of the budget, the $11.5 million will be used to support the replacement of several IT systems, including the ageing patient administration platform.
In line with its e-business infrastructure initiative and e-health system overhaul, the Victoria Department of Human Services (DHS) will implement a new data interchange platform to facilitate information sharing between non-government organizations.
The department's business vision for the project is to provide a centralized, reliable, and secure data transfer facility that will enable non-government entities to deliver and receive data with ease and in a timely manner, according to tender documents released this week.
Read more: Australia: Vic govt embarks on data interchange project
"Most of the big players in health globally are members of the AIIA," he said after a successful vendor forum in Brisbane last week.
"Sheryle Moon, the new chief executive, has been really supportive of health as an agenda item for the AIIA, so we're making progress in that area."
In Sydney to speak at this year's Australian Smart Cards Summit, Nairn said building "communities of interest" will stimulate interoperability which will pave the way for more government use of smartcards.
Read more: Australia: Smartcards to integrate levels of e-government
Smart State drivers will be among the first in the world to hold a smartcard for a licence as the technology implementation is finalized and a pilot begins next year.
Executive director of Queensland Transport's information management division Paul Summergreene said the New Queensland Drivers Licence (NQDL) project was first proposed in 2001 and is now in the procurement process.
Read more: Australia: Queensland drivers first to get smartcard