Fact sheet (PDF 195 kB)
The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has led to substantial individual, health system, and broader social and economic effects that will continue to evolve. The pandemic has also demonstrated the need for better national health data infrastructure, such as disease registers, to support evidence-based public health policy decisions.
The AIHW analyses and publishes evidence of the medium-term and long-term effects of many health conditions and diseases, including COVID-19.
In April 2022, the AIHW was funded by the Medical Research Future Fund to establish a national linked data platform using existing health data sets to strengthen evidence-based public health and health system planning and management for current and future pandemics.
Linking COVID-19-related data sets will provide new insights into the health outcomes for people who have been diagnosed with the disease, and the effect that COVID-19 has had on the health system and broader community. It will also offer researchers the opportunity to explore a range of issues associated with the pandemic.
What is data linkage?
Data linkage is a process that combines information from multiple sources about the same person or entity to create a new combined data set. The results of the linkage can provide a richer story than would be possible from a single data source.
The COVID-19 linked data set will enable us to provide a fuller picture of the relationship between COVID-19 and risk factors, the best approaches to prevention or early intervention, and the effectiveness of health and safety interventions. This will give a more holistic picture of the connections between COVID-19 and broader medical and social wellbeing.
What information is included?
Federal, state and local government agencies, as well as health and welfare service providers, hold an enormous amount of administrative and clinical data.
Information on COVID-19 cases will be sourced from participating states and territories as well as the Australian Government’s National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System, and a number of other administrative data sources.
The sources that will be initially included are: