Annual report 2024–25

The National Health Data Hub (NHDH) is a prime example of the AIHW’s commitment to innovation in health data. It integrates de-identified data from across the health system – hospitals, disability services, aged care, Medicare, pharmaceuticals, immunisation and mortality – into a single, secure resource for research and policy. It supports approved research into chronic disease, aged care, end-of-life care and service use among many other subjects.

Built on the AIHW’s Enhanced Medicare Spine and data linkage infrastructure, and with the delivery of the National Master Linkage Key initiative, the NHDH enables state and territory data linkage units to share analytical content data securely without sharing personal information. This model supports scalable, efficient integration and re-use of data that cannot be used to identify individuals or providers.

Under its enabling legislation, the AIHW is central to providing data to other national assets like the National Disability Data Asset, the ABS’s Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA), and jurisdictional linkage nodes, delivering the 2-way data flow required to fulfill the national health data ecosystem. This enhanced interoperability enables more comprehensive, cross-sectoral analyses of people’s life experiences, supports more coordinated service planning and allows for deeper insights into the social determinants of health and welfare.

By linking data once and enabling multiple uses, the NHDH reduces duplication of linkage effort, streamlines data access for approved users, accelerates analysis, and supports timely responses to emerging health issues. This strengthens the national health data ecosystem’s ability to respond to complex policy questions with timely, integrated evidence. The NHDH has already informed national work on disability, dementia, cardiovascular disease and family violence.

In 2025–26, the NHDH will expand its data offering to include data on mental health, perinatal health, cancer screening and child protection. Future plans for the NHDH include expanding into imaging, pathology, primary care and ambulance data – further strengthening the AIHW’s role as a national leader in linked data infrastructure and analysis.