An NCEPH-led project has secured major funding of $833,354 from the Australian Research Council (ARC). 

The project, Optimising linked data assets for enhanced population health monitoring, aims to help governments generate detailed information on population health outcomes to support strong and effective health policy. 

“Australian governments have invested heavily in the development of national linked data assets,” says Dr Jennifer Welsh, the project’s lead investigator. “There is massive potential to use these data to improve population health monitoring, but they are complex and complicated to work with.” 

Dr Jenny Welsh is an epidemiologist working towards reducing health inequalities, particularly in relation to socioeconomic position. She specialises in research using large-scale, linked data, including data from the Person-Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA, formerly MADIP), a government data asset. Image: supplied

Linking different health-related data together enables researchers and policymakers to build a more complete picture of population health than is possible with any single dataset. To realise the full potential of such assets, however, requires foundational methods to address their complexity. 

Partnering with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Dr Welsh’s team co-designed the project to develop practical methods and tools that can be embedded within government and research settings. 

“Our aim is to optimise use of these linked data assets in a way that enables population health monitoring that can systematically and routinely compare population health outcomes between groups and over time,” says Dr Welsh.

 The project is expected to enhance national population health monitoring, generate knowledge to advance the use of linked data, and support more informed health policies, service planning and responses to health inequalities across Australia.