HealthLink is Australia’s largest secure messaging network for healthcare providers, enabling the exchange of clinical documents using HL7 messaging standards between GPs, specialists, and other professionals on the HealthLink network.

With the PracSuite integration, your practice can send and receive referrals, reports, diagnostic imaging, pathology results and other clinical correspondence securely through HealthLink. Documents can be sent directly from patient files using familiar workflows, making it quick and seamless to communicate with other providers, without relying on less secure methods such as fax or email.

Integrating PracSuite with HealthLink requires an active HealthLink subscription.

To get started, register your clinic for a HealthLink account using the HealthLink registration form.

Once your registration is processed, HealthLink will notify you of your EDI and confirm that you're ready to start using HealthLink via PracSuite.

If your clinic is already using HealthLink and wants to connect it to PracSuite, email register@healthlink.net to let HealthLink know. Include your current EDI and whether you'd like to both receive and send messages electronically.

Once your account has been reconfigured, HealthLink will confirm your EDI and let you know when you're ready to go.

Clinics that are registered on the HealthLink network will be assigned EDI per location. The EDI identifies your clinic on the HealthLink network, and is the primary messaging address for clinics using HealthLink.

Once you have successfully completed the HealthLink signup process and have been issued your EDI, the next step is to add it to PracSuite.

Go to Settings > Integrations > HealthLink.

Select Add to start the process of adding a new EDI to PracSuite.

You will need to enter:

An EDI can only be associated with a single PracSuite account. It is not possible to share EDI access across separate PracSuite accounts. If you receive a message stating that the EDI is in use, please contact Smartsoft for further assistance.

The following Role permissions are available for HealthLink functions within PracSuite:

These Role permissions act as a gate. They determine which HealthLink areas and actions are available to a Role, not which specific messages a user can see or send on behalf of, which is configured on the individual user's profile and covered below. If a Role permission isn't enabled, the related section on the user profile will show as unavailable until it's enabled here.

In Settings > Users & Security, you can manage two HealthLink settings per user.

This determines which HealthLink messages a user can see across all enabled areas, including the inbox, alerts, and the Messages tab of Patient, Referrer, and Organisation records.

The available options depend on whether the user is set as a practitioner on their profile.

For practitioners:

For non-practitioners (e.g. reception, admin staff):

Unassigned messages (messages that haven't yet been linked to a practitioner) are controlled separately from the options above:

If All messages (all EDIs) or All messages for the following EDIs is already selected, unassigned messages for those EDIs are automatically included, and the unassigned messages setting has no further effect.

This determines which practitioners a user can send HealthLink messages on behalf of. It only applies if the Send HealthLink messages Role permission is enabled; otherwise, this section will show as unavailable on the user profile.

For practitioners:

For non-practitioners:

To send a message via HealthLink, you will need to know the clinic or medical professional's HealthLink EDI. EDIs generally represent a specific medical practice/clinic but can also represent a practitioner, particularly in a sole-practitioner situation.

EDIs can be associated with both Organisation and Referrers in PracSuite. Applying an EDI to an Organisation will also apply it to any Referrers that are linked to that Organisation. For standalone Referrers that aren't linked to an Organisation, the EDI will need to be applied individually.

If you know the practice's EDI, you can type it directly into a Referrer or Organisation in PracSuite. If you don't know the practice's EDI, you can search for it in the HealthLink directory.

When editing a Referrer or Organisation, use the search icon to browse the HealthLink directory to find the corresponding EDI.

PracSuite will search the HealthLink directory for any corresponding matches based on a combination of address, contact info and provider number.

Assigning an EDI ahead of time can speed up the message sending process.

HealthLink messages can be viewed from four different locations in PracSuite:

The primary place to view all HealthLink correspondence is via Tools > HealthLink.

This page displays all sent and received HealthLink messages (respecting user access permissions).

Clicking a message will open the message and display its associated practitioner, referrer and patient.

Hovering over a message in the HealthLink message grid provides access to the patient quick actions menu and the option to delete a message.

HealthLink messages that have been linked to a patient will be displayed in the Messages tab of that patient's file, subject to the user's HealthLink Message Access permissions.

HealthLink messages that have been linked to a referrer or organisation will be displayed in the Messages tab of that referrer or organisation, subject to the user's HealthLink Message Access permissions.

Users can receive alerts for new HealthLink messages.

Practitioners can customise whether they only receive alerts for:

The primary action required when receiving HealthLink messages is to link the message to three different record types in PracSuite:

Linking the message is the only step that PracSuite will ask you to complete. Additional actions may still need to be completed, such as reaching out to a patient to discuss the contents of the message. Use the lightning bolt icon next to a patient's name to access quick functions, including creating a task.

When a message is received, PracSuite automatically attempts to match and link the Patient, Referring Doctor, and Practitioner using details contained in the message, such as Medicare number, name, and provider number.

If a message can't be automatically linked, PracSuite will display the sender, addressee, and patient name exactly as they appear in the message. For patient and referring doctor, PracSuite will suggest possible matches to choose from, or you can create a new record.

The linked status is displayed in the message pane, the HealthLink inbox and in alerts.

The options to send HealthLink Messages are found in the Files tab of patient records.

The button to send via HealthLink is available when viewing .docx and .pdf files.

You can also select multiple files from the Files tab Select the file(s) you wish to send and then select the HealthLink button to begin the sending process.

Note the following regarding selecting files to send via HealthLink:

When starting a new HealthLink message, select the HealthLink account and the practitioner you're sending the message on behalf of.

The To and Copy To drop-downs will suggest referring doctors and other contacts that are associated with the patient. You can select a maximum of 5 practitioners in the Copy To field. The original 'to' practitioner does not contribute to this limit.

Suggested referrers will include any of the following entered within the patient file:

Referrers that are associated with an EDI will have a blue HealthLink badge. If no EDI is currently associated with the referrer in PracSuite, you will see an orange 'Click to Match' badge. Select this to search the HealthLink directory for this referrer.

If the suggested contacts in the To and Copy To drop downs aren't the referrers that you need to send the message to, you can select the Add From Directory button.

This will allow you to search the HealthLink directory for health professionals who are on the HealthLink network. If you can't find the health professional you're looking for, then it is likely that they're not registered on the HealthLink network.

When sending a HealthLink message, you can mark a message as urgent or corrected.

Marking a message urgent highlights it in the recipient's inbox once it arrives, drawing attention to it among other messages. It's a label, not a guarantee of faster action on the receiving end, the message still relies on someone at the recipient's practice checking their inbox, the same as any other message.

Use it for genuinely urgent referrals, but don't rely on it alone. If a case truly can't wait, phone the recipient as well so they're aware before the message even lands. Overusing the flag on routine referrals also weakens it over time, if everything is marked urgent, nothing stands out as urgent.

Selecting this option indicates to the recipient that this is a correct version of an earlier message.

Since the file you attach is the entire message, there's no separate text field to add context, your letter template should be self-contained enough to stand alone once it lands in someone else's inbox. Three elements matter most for that:

The subject line you enter when sending isn't just a label in your own outbox, it's sent as part of the message and is what many receiving systems use to identify and file the correspondence. Some GP practice management software matches on generic keywords to decide how to categorise and file an incoming message, rather than reading it as free text.

Sticking to one of the following generic terms in the subject line gives the widest, most reliable compatibility across different GP software:

Using a more specific or custom subject line, while perfectly readable to a person, risks the message not being recognised correctly by the recipient's filing rules, and it may end up misfiled or harder to find on their end.