Recent trends in the use of linked data in Australia.

Conclusions Investment in Australian data linkage infrastructure has seen an increase in the number of research publications involving the use of linked health and human services data. This study identified areas where linked data is commonly used and those where use could be improved.What is known about the topic? Data linkage is a method of bringing together information about individual people, places and events from different sources in a way that protects individual privacy. Individual jurisdictions have reported benefits from research conducted using linked data, including the generation of new knowledge and supporting improvements in the delivery of a wide range of health and human services. There has been significant investment in national data linkage infrastructure in Australia over the past 8 years. To date, there has been no systematic investigation of the effect of this investment on the use of linked population data by the research community.What does this paper add? This paper provides evidence of the increased use of high-quality population-based linked data in research over the 8-year period studied. It demonstrates the application of data linkage across a wide range of health areas and highlights the small but growing number of studies using cross-sectoral data to investigate complex conditions.What are the implications for practitioners? It is important to demonstrate to funders, policy makers, data custodians and researchers the value of robust data linkage...
Source: Australian Health Review - Category: Hospital Management Authors: Tags: Aust Health Rev Source Type: research