The growth of linked hospital data use in Australia: a systematic review
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Project Leader
Professor Philip Clarke
Project Details
Linking administrative hospital data to other data has the potential to be a cost-effective method to significantly improve health policy. Over the last two decades Australia has made significant investments in improving its data linkage capabilities. However, a number of articles have highlighted the many barriers involved in using linked hospital data.
In this project, we conducted a systematic review to quantify and understand the utilisation of linked hospital data for research purposes across Australia over the last two decades. Our research uncovered that more than 80% of publications utilising data linkage were from Western Australia and New South Wales, while other states significantly lag behind. The observable growth in these two states clearly demonstrates the underutilised opportunities for data linkage to add value in health services research in the other states.
Researchers
Funding
University of Melbourne
Research Publications
TEW, M., DALZIEL, K., Petrie, D., & CLARKE, P. (2016). The growth of linked hospital data use in Australia: A systematic review. Australian Health Review.