Sibiya, Mhlupheki GSamson, Akhona2025-08-222025-08-222024978-0-7988-5670-60-7988-5670-Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10204/14374In addressing the challenges of fragmented health systems in the healthcare sector in South Africa, the National Department of Health (NDoH) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have embarked on a journey which resulted in the development of the Health Normative Standards Framework (HNSF). A testing laboratory was also developed to ensure vendor systems' conformity to the standard. The NDoH embarked on an interoperability journey since the first version of the Health Normative Standards Framework (HNSF) was gazetted in 2014 (National Department of Health, 2014). The infrastructure development enables health systems to undergo conformity assessment to fulfil the requirements stipulated in the HNSF. This chapter outlines a holistic view of the conformity assessment aspect of the interoperability journey taken by the NDoH. This chapter will cover the interpretation of the HL7 standards through use cases in the form of profiles developed by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). A selection of the profiles that are relevant and useful for the South African context was carried out. This was achieved through the localisation of IHE profiles. The NHSF localisation process started with the identification of national interoperability use cases. The linking to standards and profiles in these realisation scenarios provided guidance for building localisation and interoperable implementations. The localisation to the South African context was achieved by developing national specifications based on the prioritised use cases. The national specifications were shared with the health system vendors, and the selection of profiles needed to be relevant and useful to the South African context. The national specifications were shared with the health system vendors so that they could develop systems that adhere to these specifications. The specifications were implemented in a conformity assessment digital health innovation testing laboratory, which enabled interoperability assessment to ascertain systems readiness to integrate with other health systems in the NDoH ecosystem. The conformity assessment to IHE profiles on health systems at the international level is performed by IHE-accredited laboratories. This poses a challenge for South African vendors due to fees associated with the assessment activities. The initiative is meant to allow South African vendors to assess their system's conformity to HNSF, allowing them to interoperate with other health systems within South Africa.FulltextenHealth Normative Standards FrameworkHNSFHL7 standardsBook ChapterN/A