National Data

In 2006 the Australian Government allocated twenty million dollars to establish the Population Health Research Network. A further ten million was designated for this initiative in the 2009 Budget. The funding for this initiative is being used to develop infrastructure for access to a diverse range of health datasets. This infrastructure will support valuable population based research aimed at enhancing the delivery of health care services in Australia.

This initiative is funding a major expansion of linked health services data, both within states and across Australia. Data linkage originates at the local level, and is then aggregated into state and national linkage maps. Each state node plays a vital role in developing this cross-jurisdictional infrastructure. This is illustrated in the State and National linkage map below: