About Data Linkage

What is data linkage?
Throughout our lives information is collected about our health and health care. This information is stored by hospitals, health departments and other organisations that fund or provide health care services.  Data linkage is a way to bring together information about a person, family or event from different sources.  In this way it is possible to link together information about large numbers of people without identifying individuals.  This gives us a picture of the health of our community and how it changes over time. This information can be used to plan and improve health services for the population.

What are the benefits of data linkage?
Data linkage provides information on whole populations that gives a more complete picture of the health of the community than is possible using other research methods. The information can be used to:

• assess the safety and quality of health care,
• assess the effectiveness of preventive interventions (eg. screening),
• obtain follow-up information on participants in research studies and surveys, and
• monitor trends in the patterns and costs of health care.

It is also a very cost effective research tool.  Once the linkage infrastructure is in place, the cost of accessing linkable data is minimal.