Background
Some significant health data relating to WA is held by the Australian federal government. This includes information about:
- residential care and related data concerning aged care
- claims for visits to general practitioners and some other treatments in the Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS).
- pharmaceutical claims in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)
The desirability of connecting this information to complementary health information held in state collections was recognised early on. A pilot project to link together the hospital, death, PBS and MBS information for a group of diabetic patients from WA led to the development of a "best practice protocol" which took privacy concerns into account, and enabled data custodians to retain control over the use of the information for which they are responsible. This protocol is now being widely used in a number of linkage projects across the country.
Following the success of the pilot project, a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was drawn up and signed by the DOHWADepartment of Health Western Australia and the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DOHA) in December 2002. Several projects have produced interesting results. These include research into medications during pregnancy, regularity of visits to general practitioners for those receiving mental health services, anti-inflammatory medication and heart disease.
Applying for Cross-Jurisdictional Data
Negotiations to develop a more streamlined approval and data delivery process are underway and we are not currently accepting any applications for MBS or PBS data. Please contact the Cross-Jurisdictional Program Coordinator, April Rutkay, for more information: april.rutkay@health.wa.gov.au, ph: +61 8 9222 2413.