National Health Data Hub

NDIA Investment Effectiveness Program (IEP)

National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)

The NDIA Investment Effectiveness Program (IEP) aims to explore the relationship between support funding from the NDIS and outcomes and benefits that arise. This work will enable the NDIA, government, and carers and their families to gain deep understanding of the effectiveness of the NDIS. It will also show which types of support or combinations of support help scheme participants achieve their own outcomes. In its pilot phase, the project will explore two areas of focus:

• The relationship between support payments and life outcomes
• The benefits of scheme funding, through a monetary perspective

Hospital Acquired Complications: incidence and health economic implications

Menzies Institute for Medical Research

This project seeks to examine the impact of hospital-acquired complications (HACs) in both public and private hospitals across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. The project will seek to estimate: 

• The burden of HACs in terms of mortality and additional health system costs from supplementary care, as well as use of MBS and PBS services
• The incidence and impact of HACs in low-value care; care where there is a relatively small benefit or where the risk of harm exceeds benefit

Quality Use of Medicines and Medicines Safety Monitoring Using National Datasets 

The University of Tasmania

Medication-related harm has significant costs worldwide, and associated with this is a significant level of deleterious outcomes for patients. However, in Australia data collection is not as comprehensive in this area, despite many medication-related hospital admissions and a significant annual cost associated with this. This project aims to analyse datasets which are nationally linked to enable monitoring of: 

• Quality use of medicines continuously
• The incidence of medication-related harm in Australia, such as hospital admissions

Socio-demographic characteristics, access and outcomes of patients with implanted cardiac pacing and defibrillation devices

The University of Sydney

Cardiac implantable electronic device therapy (CIED) includes a variety of tools that are used to manage cardiac pathologies such as arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy and sudden cardiac death. Current research has described temporal trends in CIED implantation with either sparse data on patient characteristics, or at a single state level. This work aims to describe trends in implant rates in Australia, socio-demographic characteristics of implant recipients, aspects of follow-up, and clinical outcomes including mortality and readmissions. This work may help inform government health service planning, monitoring, evaluation, and health policy development. 

Investigating the clinical pathways and health outcomes of children with juvenile arthritis in Australia 

The University of Sydney

Juvenile arthritis (JA) is a heterogenous grouping of conditions which are characterised by joint pain, swelling and inflammation, and can lead to permanent disability and pain if untreated. The aim of this project is to use NIHSI data linkage to examine health service use before and after diagnosis of JA. It will also examine clinical pathways and treatment, as well as chronic conditions and long-term health outcomes for children with JA.  

High-risk medication use and outcomes in older adults

The University of Sydney

The cost of medication-related problems annually is significant to the health care system in Australia. Therefore, there is a need to optimise the way in which medications are prescribed to the adult community in Australia. This project will investigate the risk factors and outcomes associated with high-risk medication usage amongst older Australians.

Understanding the impact of rheumatic diseases in Australia using large healthcare and population data

The University of Sydney

Systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARD) are associated with deleterious health outcomes for patients, as well as the requirement for healthcare utilisation. Australia has above-average rates of SARD and there are a range of factors which can attribute to this. Currently, there have been state-based studies examining SARD, but national studies (other than those focussed on Rheumatoid Arthritis) in Australia. This project aims to investigate several aspects of SARD at the national level, while also examining other aspects of SARD in Australia such as: the effect of geographical location on SARD, patterns of healthcare utilisation, and short- and long-term health outcomes for Australians living with SARD compared with a matched cohort without SARD. 

The patient journey and outcomes: Patients and their use of innovative health technologies in the Australian community

The University of Sydney

Healthcare is undergoing a major transformation due to the emergence of a variety of innovative health technologies. These include medical tests and drug treatments broadly and have major potential for disease diagnosis, treatment and management. However, despite this potential, whether this these benefits are realised is unclear. The aim of this study is to look Australia-wide at the patient journey and outcomes of patients who use innovative health technologies in the Australian community. This work aims to help identify patients who will likely benefit from innovative technologies, or those who may be at risk of health and access disparities. This will guide policy and practice to enhance outcomes and access for patients. 

National Echo Database Australia- Linked Data Project 

National Echo Database Australia

The National Echo Database Australia (NEDA) Linked Data Project will be a program of work to link echocardiography data from the existing NEDA database with the National Death Index (NDI), and the National Health Data Hub (NHDH). The project aims to provide a longitudinal profile of Australians with known or suspected cardiac disease and will allow NEDA to use this linked data to investigate the cause, diagnosis, and treatment of disease in people with cardiac problems, and factors that affect their survival. 

Myasthenia Gravis Healthcare Resource Use and Cost of Therapy in Australia

Griffith University

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a chronic illness characterised by muscle weakness and fatiguability and can lead to life-threatening myasthenic crises; periods of acute symptom exacerbation. The primary aim of this study is to elucidate the economic burden of MG management in Australia. The secondary aims of the study include understanding the burden of disease in patient subgroups, estimating the usage and costs of treatment in Australia, and to see if there are any predictive factors for MG. 

Quantifying and characterising healthcare utilisation in systemic sclerosis: a data-linkage study

St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, University of Melbourne

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disorder that affects the skin and internal organs and is associated with multiorgan involvement. SSc has the highest case-based mortality of all rheumatic diseases, and significantly reduced life expectancy. The aim of this project is to quantify the frequency of a variety of SSc diseases, the frequency and type of medication utilised, and characterise healthcare requirements in a range of manifestations of SSc by linking data in the Australian Scleroderma Cohort Study (ASCS) to data collections within the National Health Data Hub (NHDH).  

Improving the health status and reducing the mortality gap for vulnerable young Australians 

The University of Melbourne

This study will document patterns of mortality and access to healthcare among young people following contact with the homelessness service system in Australia. The project aims to provide a detailed description of primary healthcare, emergency, and hospital-based health service engagement in a population-based cohort of young people who have had contact with the homelessness service system from 2011 through to present. 

Costs of diabetes-related complications in Australia: a nation-wide observational study

The University of Melbourne

This project aims to estimate, from the healthcare sector perspective, costs of diabetes-related complications and costs of diabetes in individuals with type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes and gestational diabetes in Australia. The diabetes-complications that will be taken into account for type 1 and type 2 diabetes include heart failure, myocardial infarction, ischaemic heart disease, angina, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, neuropathy, foot ulcer, macroalbuminuria, microalbuminuria, proteinuria, end-stage kidney disease, renal dialysis, renal transplant, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, vision loss, macular oedema, overweight, hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia, and diabetic ketoacidosis, if they could be identified from the database. The gestational diabetes complications that will be considered include hyperglycaemia, hypertension, pre-eclampsia, shoulder dystocia and postpartum haemorrhage if they could be identified from the database. 

What is the uptake of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines in people with severe mental illness? 

The University of Queensland

People with severe mental illness (SMI) are vulnerable for severe COVID-19 illness and therefore are a priority group for vaccination. However, there are challenges in achieving this goal. There is also sparse evidence pertaining to vaccination rates for influenza in persons with SMI. Therefore, it is important to understand whether vaccination has differences on COVID-19 and influenza mortality and morbidity between persons with SMI and the general population. This study aims to understand this through analysis of hospital data from some states and territories across Australia. 

Unveiling National Trends: A Novel Data Linkage Approach to Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Epidemiology in Australia 

James Cook University

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder. Subsets of CD include moderate-to-severe UC, severe CD and fistulising CD (FCD). There are substantial costs and national productivity losses associated with these diseases in Australia. This project aims to understand the incidence rates of different subsets of IBD across different demographic groups in Australia. It also aims to examine trends and risk factors for these subsets over time, as well as investigating geographical distribution and variability of subsets to inform healthcare resource allocation.

This project aims to assess pattern and trend of polypharmacy in individuals with mental health disorders, assess the impact of socio-environmental determinants (for example, social fragmentation, social vulnerability, green space, air pollution) on polypharmacy; and investigate spatial pattern and potential clusters of polypharmacy.

The last year of life: health service use, patterns, and expenditure

AIHW

The project has been established to measure and compare the patterns of health service use of Australian in their last year of life.

Report released: The last year of life: patterns in health service use and expenditure

Using linked hospitals data to improve reporting on chronic conditions and associated complications

AIHW

The project will aim to improve our understanding of the prevalence of vascular disease conditions, and the associated treatments and complications using linked hospitals data.

Report released: Diabetes: Australian facts, Hospitalisations 

Report released: Heart, stroke and vascular disease: Australian facts, All heart, stroke and vascular disease 

Hospitalisations, aged care transitions and health outcomes among people with dementia

AIHW

This project consists of 3 pieces of analysis looking at hospitalisations, transitions to aged care and health outcomes among people with dementia. All three projects are funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health as part of the NCMD.

Report released: Dementia in Australia: GP and specialist services

Report released: Transitions to residential aged care after hospital for people living with dementia

Report released: Geographical variation in health service use by people living with dementia

Patterns of health service use by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who die by suicide

AIHW

The project will explore patterns of health service use by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the last years of life before their death by suicide.

Chronic condition multimorbidity reporting

AIHW

This project aims to inform our understanding of multimorbidity in Australia by identifying groups of chronic conditions that commonly occur together, and exploring how their co-occurrence affects treatment, management, and health outcomes for people with multimorbidity.

Australian population-NDI-Hospital’s comparator analysis (for the health and welfare data analysis to support the Defence and Veteran Suicide Royal Commission and ongoing DVA-AIHW work program)

AIHW

The main objective of this analysis is to improve understanding of the use of hospital-based services by the Australian veteran population including comparison to the Australian population.

Health service use for people requiring palliative care

AIHW

This project aims to capture palliative care services provided in specialist and non-specialist palliative care settings by using NIHSI AA to identify a palliative care cohort and then all services used by this cohort.

Exploring stroke prevalence using linked data

AIHW

The aims of this project are to: compare stroke prevalence estimates and demographic characteristics of people who were identified as having stroke in the NIHSI AA, 2018 Survey of Disability and Aged Care (SDAC), 2021 Census and other data sources use linked data to explore reporting of stroke prevalence for priority populations and to explore stroke identification between data sources.

Chronic respiratory conditions monitoring

AIHW

This project aims to: 

• Explore the impact of respiratory conditions on priority populations (such as children, young and older people) and/or topics of interest as agreed with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and the AIHW National Asthma and other Chronic Respiratory Conditions Monitoring Advisory Group
• Develop a patient-centred understanding of respiratory conditions across the life course
• Monitor and report on the health service use of people with respiratory conditions, including describing their health journey, medication and service use as well as the comorbidity status of patients with certain respiratory conditions before, during and after hospitalisation
• The findings of this work can be used to support better healthcare delivery and management of respiratory conditions

Supporting the maintenance and development of the NIHSI by the AIHW NIHSI team 

AIHW

The purpose of this project proposal is to support the maintenance and ongoing development of the NHDH by the AIHW NHDH team

The use of linked data to improve point prevalence estimates and identification of co-morbidities for the Australian Burden of Disease Study 2026 (ABDS 2026) and the First Nations Burden of Disease Study 2022 (FNBoD 2022)

AIHW

The project aims to improve the point prevalence estimates for a number of disease sequelae as part of the ABDS 2026 and FNBoD 2022 using linked hospitals, deaths, AIR, MBS and PBS data.

Investigating linked data as a potential source of information about relocation to access kidney dialysis services

AIHW

This exploratory project aims to use the NHDH data to look at where people receiving dialysis were living prior to treatment, at commencement of treatment, and in the months and years following, as well as where treatment is being received, in order to try and identify areas where it is common for people to relocate to be closer to a treatment centre. Drive time analysis may be undertaken to further investigate distances travelled to access care.

Australia’s Disability Strategy Outcomes Framework (ADSOF) project (NHDH plus DOMINO data)

AIHW

This project will facilitate reporting against Australia’s Disability Strategy (ADS) 2021-2031 Outcomes Framework and health outcomes for people with disability. The associated ADS data improvement plan aims to target three measures.

These measures are:

• Number of potentially avoidable deaths in hospital for people with disability compared to people without disability
• Number of people with disability with general practitioner-type emergency department presentations
• Number of involuntary hospital admissions

First results have been published on Australia's Disability Strategy.

Perinatal linkage pilot project (NPDC)

AIHW

The objective of the perinatal data linkage pilot project is to establish the mechanisms and demonstrate the feasibility of data linkage at the national level using the National Perinatal Data Collection (NPDC)

National Aged Care Data Asset: AIHW Analytical Program

AIHW

This program of work aims to provide an overview of the NACDA for researchers and showcase its use to the wider community. 

Report released: Interfaces between the aged care and health systems in Australia

Report released: National Aged Care Data Asset: Data resource profile

Report released: Interfaces between the aged care and health systems 

Creation of a pilot dementia linked asset

AIHW

The National Centre for Monitoring Dementia (NCMD) are proposing a linkage between the NHDH and Dementia Support Australia, HammondCare (DSA) data. DSA are a nationwide support service that collect high-quality clinical data on the behaviours and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) experienced by people living with dementia in Australia. As health outcomes, service use and prevalence of people experiencing BPSD in Australia is a key national information gap, this linkage aims to provide an invaluable resource for BPSD-related service and policy planning. The NCMD are proposing this project to be a pilot linkage to demonstrate the concept of a dementia linked asset. 

This project aims to explore the agreement between hospitalisation and death records of people who have either a hospitalisation or death record of kidney failure (KF). A previous AIHW analysis of linked data from WA and NSW showed that 69% and 88% of people with a hospitalisation involving KF did not have KF recorded on their death certificate, and 40% and 23% of people with KF recorded on their death certificate did not have KF recorded on their hospital record.

The analyses from this project will support the development of relevant measures and indicators required under the National Agreement: 

• Closing the mortality gap for people living with mental health conditions 
• Improved service integration and continuity after self-harm
• Shared planning, commissioning, and service delivery
• Services are accessed by those who need them.

Healthy mind, healthy body

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

This project aims to build knowledge and a better understanding of the of the association between physical health conditions and mental health conditions.

Department of Health Priority Investment Approach (HOME Project (Health Outcomes Modelling and Evaluation Project))

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

Under the Residential Aged Care Quality and Safety – Improving access to primary care and other health services measure, the department (Ageing Policy, Research and Reporting Section together with Health Economics Section in HERD) will develop an investment approach longitudinal model.

The primary use case for the investment approach is to enable the department to develop options and advice on prevention strategies to support better outcomes later in life, including delaying or diverting entry into the aged care system. It will also help build a better evidence base to improve outcomes and transitions between health and aged care settings.

Patient Pathways Project

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing is committed to improving health outcomes for Australians, by providing better coordinated and joined up care across the community, primary care and acute care settings and ensuring the future sustainability of Australia’s health system.

Primary care and PPH care use

NSW Ministry of Health

The aim of this project is to examine the variation in association between primary care utilisation and different types of hospitalisations, ED presentations by population and patient groups with varied health needs and different levels of risk for secondary care.

Informing Patients, clinicians and policy makers about the benefit of new models of care

NSW Bureau of Health Information

The purpose of this work is to put new information in the hands of patients, clinicians and policy makers about the experiences and outcomes of new models of care with a focus on initiatives implemented or ‘scaled up’ in the pandemic with high potential for inclusion in a longer-term health system reform agenda.

Understanding system demand, relationships and individual outcomes to reduce system pressure, enhance system sustainability, and deliver better healthcare

SA Health

Utilising MBS and PBS data sources, combined hospital-based events, and aged care services data, we aim to better understand the reasons underpinning the demand which contributes to ambulance ramping and emergency department pressures, to better understand the health-related factors driving this demand, and to identify appropriate services supportive of informed decision-making in the personalised healthcare environment.

Transitions between aged care and hospital

Tasmanian Department of Health

The objective of this project is to use aged care, death, MBS and hospital data to quantify the impact on public hospitals of persons transitions to aged care, particularly the extent to which patterns of health care use during transition periods differ from non-transition periods.

Assessing models of primary care provision and health need to inform service planning

Queensland Department of Health

The objective of the project is to understand the existing interplay between primary and acute care and areas of need for alternative models of care. The data is intended for use by the Queensland Health Reform Office and System Planning Branch to understand patterns of health service provision, including chronic disease management, primary care access, and health risks for patient cohorts and to assist with health service planning.

Productivity Commission healthcare research

Productivity Commission

The aim of this project is to assess the effects of these adjustments on the prevalence of hospital-acquired complications (HACs) in public hospitals.

This project will examine differences in the hospital treatment received by public patients treated in public hospitals, private patients treated in public hospitals, private patients treated in private hospitals and (potentially) public patients treated in private hospitals, controlling for differences in patient characteristics (such as DRG, age, comorbidities and urgency of admission (including whether the admission following an emergency department presentation).

Report released: Improving health outcomes through hospital funding arrangements 

Treatment patterns and medications for patients with coronary heart disease (Phase 2)

AIHW

To examine the patterns of use of health services post coronary heart disease (CHD) related hospitalisation and the association with patient outcomes.

Report released: Medication use for secondary prevention after coronary heart disease hospitalisations: Patient pathways using linked data

Better cardiac care measures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: additional analyses

AIHW

The aim of this project is to use linked data available in the NIHSI to explore differences in service utilisation and patient journeys for selected cardiac conditions among Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people

Report released: Better Cardiac Care measures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: eighth annual report 2023

Examination of Health service use among young people hospitalised for FDV

AIHW

For people hospitalised for family and domestic violence at least one prior to their 18th birthday, this project will examine: Demographic characteristics, hospital stays (family and domestic violence and all cause stays) Emergency department activity (number of presentations and diagnoses), GP contact, medical imaging rates, and the rate and cause of death.

These results will be compared with a matched comparison group, drawn from the hospitalisation data.

Report released: Health service use among young people hospitalised due to family and domestic violence

Refugee and Humanitarian Entrant Health Project

AIHW

The purpose of this project is to develop data and information that will help to bridge this data gap and inform the design and delivery of health care services for this population group.

Impact of participation in the My Health Record (MHR) and health service use/outcomes

AIHW 

To support the evidence basis for the ongoing funding of the My Health Record system; the Australian Digital Health Agency evaluated the performance of the MHR System. 

Hip fracture care pathways in Australia

AIHW

To use linked data to explore the outcomes of patient journeys of hospitalised hip fracture patients.

Report released: Hip fracture care pathways in Australia 

Chronic disease surveillance - cardiovascular disease (CVD) 

AIHW

The project aimed to use linked data to validate previously developed algorithms for stroke and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) events and estimated incidence of stroke and ACS in the Australian population. 

Report released: Estimating the incidence of stroke and acute coronary syndrome using the National Integrated Health Services Information Analysis Asset 

The use of linked data to improve point prevalence estimates for the Australian Burden of Disease Study 2018

AIHW

The project aimed to improve the point prevalence estimates for a number of disease sequelae as part of the ABDS 2018 using linked hospitals, deaths, MBS and PBS data.

Report released: Australian Burden of Disease Study: Impact and causes of illness and death in Australia 2018

Report released: Australian Burden of Disease Study 2018: Interactive data on disease burden

Report released: Australian Burden of Disease Study: Methods and supplementary material 2018

Report released: Australian Burden of Disease Study: Impact and causes of illness and death in Australia 2018 - Summary report

Health Service use following intracranial injury 

AIHW

This projects aim was to prepare a report on health care pathways following an intracranial injury, to be released as a web-based bulletin on the AIHW website. 

Report released: Health service use for patients with traumatic brain injury

Health service utilisation by people with dementia in Australia

AIHW

The project aimed to examine health service utilisation by people with dementia in Australia in a single year using linked data. 

Report released: Dementia in Australia, Health services used by people with dementia 

Determining performance and analytical requirements to optimise use of the NIHSI AA within an approved Host Environment

AIHW

The purpose of this project was to assess the hosting, processing and analytical capabilities of a secure host environment against the optimal requirements for analysts using the NIHSI.

Analysis of NIHSI AA data for Comcare project

AIHW

Phase 1: The objective of this project was to use the NIHSI to identify records where the funding source was workers' compensation and track treatment over time and through services to examine whether there were differences in hospital treatment between patients funded by workers' compensation and those with funding sources, for selected injuries/ illness.

Phase 2: The purpose of this deliverable was to identify and describe the patterns of mental health related service use across MBS, PBS, and hospital collections. These patterns were then to be compared with the patterns of service use by Comcare claimants.  

Dementia pathways through primary care and aged care among newly diagnosed and younger onset dementia cohorts

AIHW

This project aimed to explore pathways through primary care and other health services for people newly diagnosed with early dementia and pathways to residential aged care for people with younger onset dementia.

Reports released: Younger onset dementia: new insights using linked data  

Examination of repeat family and domestic violence victimisation     

AIHW

This project aimed to analyse the number of people hospitalised and re-hospitalised for family and domestic violence. Comparisons in hospitalisations, diagnosis, injuries, and deaths were made between the FDV cohort and a matched control group. 

Report released: Examination of hospital stays due to family and domestic violence 2010–11 to 2018–19

Using NHDH to develop improved weighting methods to estimate Indigenous health expenditure

AIHW

The AIHW have undertaken analysis to produce Indigenous health expenditure estimates for a number of years and these estimates were reported as part of the Indigenous Health Performance Framework reporting. 

Towards an Australian COVID-19 register and linked dataset

AIHW

The project investigated health risks for patient cohorts admitted to hospital including COVID-19 or similar control groups. Long COVID disease management patterns compared to similar cohorts facilitate data quality of linked data in relation to patient journeys within the Australian health system. This allowed for assessment of efficiency and effectiveness in health systems in recent years to inform other existing linkage projects. 

Health care service use and pathways for younger people in residential aged care (YPIRAC)

AIHW

The broad aim of this research project was to comprehensively describe the circumstances of younger people YPIRAC (aged under 65), including their pathways in to and out of residential aged care. 

Report released: Health services used by younger people living in residential aged care

Juvenile arthritis 

AIHW

This project updated and expanded on statistics presented in the previous juvenile arthritis web report (AIHW 2020). For phase 1 of the project, we anticipated using NIHSI to report counts of people admitted to hospital. For phase 2 we reported on patient care pathways across data collections and potentially perform other exploratory analysis that may result in report outputs. 

Report released: Chronic musculoskeletal conditions: Juvenile arthritis 

Analysis of person linked administrative records to improve injury surveillance methods and estimates at national level in Australia

AIHW

This project delivered improved methods to the AIHW for use in ongoing injury surveillance, including:

• Estimate population-based incidence of all admitted injury and of HTTL injury based on linked administrative data and compare these estimates with estimates based on non-linked NHMD alone  
• Determine whether analysis of linked records can enable a method to be identified that can be applied using non-linked data (i.e. NHMD alone) and which outperforms the current usual method of case estimation (that is, omitting episodes in which the mode of admission is inward transfer from another acute care hospital)

The proposed mental health services NIHSI project will examine the volume and type of mental health-related services used by people over time. The planned analysis aims to identify the first mental health-related contact for an individual and the setting in which it occurred, for example, emergency department, general practitioner and so forth. The data will then be examined prospectively and retrospectively in terms of the type and volume of services utilised over time.

The primary objective is to explore the demographic and clinical characteristics of those hospitalised with heart failure (HF). In addition we will describe comorbidities medication use, contact with community-based health care and health outcome following hospital discharge among those hospitalised with HF.

The effect of PBS rifaximin treatment on patient hospitalisation rate and duration

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

The project examined the frequency and duration of hospitalisations for hepatic encephalopathy (HE) for patients with chronic liver failure, distinguishing between patients that have been treated with PBS rifaximin and those who have not.

Using Machine Learning to Group Similar Medical Codes and Analyse Patient Treatment Pathways

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

This project used big data and machine learning techniques to extract relationships between the medical codes used to identify clinical concepts in administrative health records, and to identify similarities between the patient journeys captured in these records. 

Impact of opioid use on patient outcomes in Australia 

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

This project investigated the variations in prescription opioid dispensing patterns and service utilisation between different groups of patients and the factors that are likely to be best targeted through interventions. 

Estimating the real human health impacts of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Australia 

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

The project identified the circumstances and frequency with which antibiotic resistance is screened and/or detected in the community and hospital settings. It helps to answer questions relating to how often antibiotics are prescribed in the absence of pathology. 

Investigating and Evaluating Healthcare Neighbourhoods

NSW Health

The project used NIHSI data to further understand the effectiveness of specific mechanisms in supporting more integrated care and demonstrate whether more integrated care provided through healthcare neighbourhoods delivers improved clinical outcomes in both primary and acute care. 

Patterns of health service utilisation in patients with chronic disease in NSW

NSW Health

Observational research used linked health administrative datasets to demonstrate the opportunities to obtain a comprehensive picture of complex patterns of health events for patients with chronic disease in a real-world setting. 

The primary objectives of this study are to:

• Measure the prevalence of frailty.
• Describe the initiation and progression of frailty.
• Measure healthcare utilisation associated with frailty, as well as the factors contributing to healthcare needs and use (for example, demographics, service characteristics) and their variation across care providers and areas where people live.
• Predict future demands for healthcare services related to frailty.

Wellbeing SA health needs assessment

SA Health

Wellbeing SA as a new entity within SA did an assessment to support strategic planning and set baseline data to support program development and initiative roll-out. The NIHSI allowed for the first time the overlay of SA population major health service utilisation by demographic and regional profile. 

Intentional self-harm/suicide 

SA Health

Utilised the NIHSI to investigate South Australian patients who have experienced at least one intentional self-harm or suicide ideation during their MBS/PBS hospital interactions to look for statistic significant factors.  

End of life care

SA Health

To meet policy planning and state strategic objectives with respect of end of life care this project examined last 12 months of life undertaking a look back from death.  

Hospital in the Home patients

SA Health

SA health is looking at expanding its use of community/hospital in the home type services as it is believed to be more consumer focused and effective model of care. However, we do not believe there is good local evidence as to whether patients receiving hospital in the home services have better outcomes.

No work has been done in SA to consider whether patients that receive hospital in the home care are more likely to represent to ED or inpatient use their GP more or experience some other adverse outcome the analysis may also investigate which cohorts are better suited to hospital in the home type services. All NIHSI AA datasets were used, including cause of death to assist with risk proofing of patient cohorts and to adjust for various factors.

Strategic Commissioning for improved health outcomes - an examination of the resourcing accessibility, safety, quality, and effectiveness of SA patient’s continuum of care 

SA Health

A number of tools were developed to support strategic commissioning, funding, planning and monitoring thereof, of services to improve health outcomes across South Australia in congruence with driving improvements in allocative efficiency.

Inquiry into the provision of palliative care services in South Australia

SA Health

Analysis of data from NIHSI is intended to contribute to the project’s objectives by enabling summary statistics and explanatory narrative on palliative care in SA and elsewhere in Australia, including trends over time in:

• Locations, causes and ages of deaths, including the prevalence of amenable mortality
• The provision of Medicare- and state-funded services in the last year and final months of life, including analyses of models of care and patient journeys throughout that period 
• Costs of providing palliative care services, end of life care and other health care services in the approach to end of life

Report released: Inquiry into palliative care services | SA Health

Healthcare productivity measurement

Productivity Commission

This project is examining ways that such productivity statistics could be improved to better reflect patents' experiences of the healthcare system.