National Health Data Hub

The NHDH is a longitudinal, person-focussed, de-identified health linkage system. It is unique among similar linkage assets in that it brings together hospital data on admitted patient care services, emergency department services and outpatient services for all states and territories (with the exception of Western Australia and the Northern Territory). The NHDH draws on data from nationally compiled datasets supplied by jurisdictions which are curated by the AIHW, making harmonised and nationally standardised linked health and welfare data available to analysts and researchers. It also includes various Commonwealth and non-government datasets relating to pharmaceuticals, health utilisation, aged care, deaths, disability, intensive care and immunisation information.

The NHDH facilitates person-based and longitudinal studies to support contemporary medical research, inform health, welfare, disability and aged care services planning and policy development by government and non-government organisations, and monitoring of service delivery.

Researchers will be able to use the data set to explore issues such as validation of the current treatment pathways for chronic disease management and care.

NHDH and the broader National Health Data System

The NHDH is a key linked data resource in the National Linked Data System. The National Linked Data System comprises several linkage systems such as the ABS’ Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA), the National Disability Data Asset (NDDA), Population Health Research Network (PHRN) linkage nodes, state and territory linkage nodes and other bespoke linkages and assets. These linked data systems and assets are designed to be interoperable, meaning that sharing of linked data is (or will become) streamlined and will not require the sharing of personal information.

Figure 1: NHDH datasets