Diana Rosman
Data LinkageThe process of establishing whether two or more pieces of information belong to or describe the same person, family, event, place or time period. Branch Program Manager
BSc, GradDipComp, MMedSc
Diana joined the DOHWADepartment of Health Western Australia in September 2000 as Manager of the Data Linkage Branch. Diana’s academic background crosses the health informatics disciplines of mathematical statistics, computer science and population health. Early experiences in medical statistics for the Busselton Health Study at UWAUniversity of Western Australia, computer graphics at Curtin University and networks at the US National Bureau of Standards in the 1970s were the inspiration for a career in applying novel mathematical and computing techniques to medical and social research questions.
More recently, as a Research Fellow with the Road Accident Prevention Research Unit at the University of WA in the 1990s, Diana authored several articles using data linkage for road safety research, a research interest that she has maintained at DLB. She is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute.
Client Services
Geoff Davis
Senior Data Linkage Consultant
BA (Hons), Dip.Ed., Dip.P.H.
Geoff has a diverse role in the Data Linkage Branch developing strategies to address emerging development issues. He has recently been leading a cross agency collaboration on indigenous status, developing several projects on improved data handling systems, facilitating strategic planning for the branch, and providing analytical support for a current Department of Health Amphetamines study. Geoff has completed leadership training with the Public Sector Commission of Western Australia, and at various times has taken on leadership roles in both data linkage and data collections. Geoff has a strong background in health data collections and complex data analysis contributing to numerous studies in fields such as: illicit drug user populations; indigenous health; stroke; cardiovascular disease; and neck of femur fractures.
Alexandra Godfrey
Project Manager
BA (Hons)(W.Aust), GradDipRecMgnt&Archiv MInfoMgnt (Curtin)
Alex graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Archaeology, then went on to further study at Curtin University. Alex began working as a Linkage Officer in March 2008 and three months later moved to the Client Services Team as Project Officer. In June 2010 she began working as the Project Manager and in this role coordinates the approvals and linkage and extractionThe process of selecting records from the health data collections. Researchers may request the extraction of certain variables from the DOHWA data collections. E.g. a researcher may ask for an extract of all people in WA who were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. work for DLB projects.
Emma Fuller
Director, International Health Data Linkage Network
BSc MPH (W.Aust)
Emma graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Public Health. Joining the DLB in 2004, she has worked as a Linkage Officer and the Project Officer. For her Masters degree, Emma collated the research outputs of studies using linked data from 1995-2003, identifying those projects which influenced health policy and practice. In 2006, Emma was awarded the Fay Gale Fellowship and travelled to and worked with six of the major data linkage centres in Canada and the UK, and presented her findings to the World Health Organisation in Geneva. In her current role, Emma is focused on the value of data linkage and the establishment of an international health data linkage consortium.
April Rutkay
Cross-JurisdictionalPertaining to both WA Health and Commonwealth data. An example of a cross-jurisdictional request would be WA hospital data and Commonwealth Medicare data. These requests are governed by the Cross-jurisdictional Steering Committee (XJSC). Program Coordinator
BCM (Hons) (W.Aust)
April has a Bachelof of Computer and Mathematical Sciences from UWA, majoring in Applied Statistics and Operations Research. She worked at Data Analysis Australia for three years, where she provided statistical advice to a wide range of clients in government and industry. April also spent five years at Medicare Australia as a Senior Analyst, working on cross-agency data sharing projects, for the purpose of detecting fraud and other non-compliant behaviours. April joined the DLB in May 2011 as Program Coordinator of the Cross-Jurisdictional Data Linkage Program. In this role, she will be finalising the 27 existing cross-jurisdictional projects.
Tom Eitelhuber
Data Coordinator
BCM (W.Aust)
Tom graduated from The University of Western Australia in 2005 with a Bachelor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, majoring in Pure Mathematics and Discrete Mathematics. Tom joined the Data Linkage Branch as a Linkage Officer in 2006, eventually shifting into the position of Senior Linkage Officer, a role in which he worked on complex linkage tasks and assisted with the training and supervision of new staff. In 2011 Tom entered the newly-created role of Data Coordinator of the 'CARES' project, with the aim of developing and overseeing the Custodian Administered Research Extract Server, a system for centralising and standardising data extractions and cohort selections for projects using linked data.
Data Linkage Unit
Carol Garfield
Manager, Data Linkage Systems
BPE DipED (W.Aust) GradDipComp (Curtin)
Carol has been involved in the data linkage arena in WA since 1989. After a short career in teaching Carol joined Fiona Stanley’s research group and worked on the Maternal and Child Health Research Database and associated research project. In 1998 Carol joined the DoHWA as DBA for the Data Linkage Branch and in 2002 became Manager, Data Linkage Systems. Carol currently manages the Linkage Services and System Support teams with the Data Linkage Branch.
Margaret Wood
Principal Linkage Officer
BA (Hons)(Cantab.)Mathematics, MA (Cantab.), PGCE
Margaret has an M.A. from Cambridge University where she studied Mathematics. She worked as a primary school teacher, until the ever-increasing paperwork prompted a career change into I.T. She spent many years developing software, mostly for companies in the Oil and Gas industries. In 2002 she migrated to Australia, and the following year began working at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research providing programming and database support to the Population Sciences Division. This role included working at the Data Linkage Branch for one day a week. In 2007 she became Principal Linkage Officer at the Data Linkage Branch. In this role she supervises and trains other Linkage Officers and develops new strategies for linkage, data extraction, and control selection.
Cameron Poole
Linkage Officer
BHlthSc (W.Aust)
Cameron graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor of Health Science from the University of Western Australia, majoring in Public Health and Psychology. Whilst undertaking practicum at the Department of Health he became interested in Data Linkage, and shortly after began working as a Linkage Officer. In his current position he assists with the linking of core datasets.
Helen Wichmann
Linkage Officer
BABehaviouralStudies (EdithCowan), GradCertAppEpidem(Curtin), MNurs (Curtin)
Helen joined the DLB in February 2011 after six years with the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Curtin University where she worked and published research in the areas of kinship care, in-hospital transitional care, collaborative models, Indigenous maternal and child health, and the role of communication in pain management in the elderly. Immediately prior to this Helen spent a number of years teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in Perth and overseas. She was also a founding staff member of the Centre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry, which opened in 1994, and where she worked for six years on the WA Family Study of Schizophrenia. Helen has expertise in a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including the analysis of linked data. The latter experience prompted her interest in learning more about 'how' data linkage is done. In her current position Helen assists with the linking of core datasets.
Stacey Leong
Linkage Officer
BHlthSc (W.Aust)
Stacey graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor of Health Science from the University of Western Australia, majoring in Public Health and Physiology. Whilst undertaking a practicum at the Department of Health she became interested in Data Linkage and was employed as a Linkage Officer in 2011. In this position she assists with the linkage of the core datasets.
Jenny Currell
Linkage Officer
B.Sc (W.Aust)
Jenny has a BSc in with a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics. She has worked for the WA State Government in Land Information for 20 years in the roles of computer programmer, systems analyst, project leader and project manager and has undertaken project work in data modelling and business process re-engineering. She was part of the core team that developed the early Spatial Cadastral Data Base and WA Land Information System. Whilst raising three boys Jenny has done volunteer work as an assistant teacher of English for new migrants, undertaken website development, completed most of a Grad Dip in Finance and Investment, run a recreational dance group and worked part-time as a Field Interviewer for the Australian Bureau of Statistics. She joined DLB as a Linker in 2012.
Systems Support
Adam Bodestyne
Programmer
BCM (W.Aust)
Adam graduated from the University of Western Australia in 2005 with a Bachelor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, with a double major in Computer Science and Information Technology Systems. In early 2006 Adam joined the Data Linkage Branch as a programmer on the Linkage System Re-engineering Project, and in 2007 moved into his current role as the DLB’s general systems/application/maintenance programmer.
Todd Owen 
Programmer
BSc (Comp Sci) (W.Aust)
Todd first joined the Data Linkage Branch in 2001 as a graduate programmer. In 2003 he left on an extended 'sabbatical', spending the next 8 years in China working at different times as an English teacher, volunteer, health researcher and communicator, and finally as a database and web developer. In 2011 he returned to Perth and rejoined the DLB where he assists with system maintenance and new development.
James Thackray
Programmer
BCompSc (W.Aust)
James graduated from UWA with a Bachelor of Computer Science and joined the DLB in 2007 as a contract programmer. He is currently working on the development of a new data linkage system.
Analysts
Dr Laura Miller
Acting Data Analyst – Road Safety
MA (Hons) (St. Andrews), MA (Sheffield), PhD (Canterbury)
Laura has a research background and recently completed her PhD at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand looking at the geographical epidemiology of childhood leukaemia and type 1 diabetes. Laura joined the DOHWA in 2008 as a Spatial Analyst for Child & Adolescent Community Health. She completed a short secondment to the Hospital Morbidity Data Collection branch in June 2010, and joined the Data Linkage Unit in August 2010. As part of her current road safety Data Analyst role, Laura is evaluating road crash injury severity measures and examining the effects of remoteness and rural influences on road crash injury outcome.
Glenn Draper
Data Analyst - Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics
Outposted from ABS
BSocSc, MSocSc
Glenn completed a bachelor of Social Science at QUT and a Master of Social Science at the UQ. He has worked in population health research for more than 10 years, including stints at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in Canberra, QUT’s School of Public Health and most recently the Department of Health WA’s Epidemiology Branch. Glenn is currently working for the National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics within the Australian Bureau of Statistics undertaking collaborative project with the Data Linkage Branch that is examining the potential of linked data to improve the quality of Aboriginal statistics.
Dr Emma Glasson
Coordinator, Family Connections Project
BPsych, BSc (Hons), PhD
Emma graduated from The University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Psychology, a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Human Biology and a PhD that focused on the epidemiology of autism in Western Australia. Emma undertook a postdoctoral position at the Centre for Healthy Ageing, Edith Cowan University investigating issues of ageing for people with intellectual disability. Emma is the coordinator of the WA Family Connections GenealogicalRelating to the history of a person, family or group. project.
Peter Cosgrove
Data Analyst
BSc (W.Aust)
Peter graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Science Degree majoring in Computer Science in 1987. In his early career he worked in various IT roles in the business sector before moving into the health research area in 1998 with a position at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research (TICHRTelethon Institute of Child Health Research). His role at TICHR has involving supporting researchers, principally in the Population Sciences Division, in the use of database and programming resources in the research program.
As part of the partnership arrangements between TICHR and the Data Linkage Branch, Peter has worked in a part-time secondment at the DLB since 2003. This was initially in the Data Linkage Group and more recently and currently, working as a Data Analyst checking linked data extracts before they are delivered to researchers. He also contributes to some other IT related project work in the branch.
Shauna Trafalski
Data Analyst
BMSc (Curtin), GradCertStat (QLD)
Shauna graduated from Curtin University with a Bachelor of Mathematical Science, majoring in Statistics and Discrete Mathematics, and has since done further study at the University of Queensland and the University of Western Australia. Shauna commenced in her role of Data Analyst at the Data Linkage Branch in 2008 and is responsible for analysing, preparing and checking the linked data extracts for research projects.
Marcela Quintero
Data Analyst
, Developmental Pathways Project
MD (UN Colombia), MPH (Curtin)
Marcela studied Medicine at Universidad Nacional de Colombia and practiced for around three years in several hospitals. She then focused her career in Health Administration working in a number of Coordinator roles and as a Medical Auditor. In 2004, she relocated to Angola (Africa) for family reasons and volunteered as a medical practitioner at an orphanage. One year later, she moved to Perth where she completed a Master in Public Health at Curtin University of Technology, and joined the Department of Health in 2008. Since then she has worked at the Department of Health WA within the population health data collections , including hospital , cancer, and emergency information. Marcela recently joined DLB as a Data Analyst to work on demonstration projects with the Developmental Pathways Project.