Future developments

This report has been archived. Content previously included in this report can now be found at COVID-19 register and linked data set and COVID-19 linked data set: Linkage results.

The next steps of this project are to improve the coverage of COVID-19 cases, which includes linking more recent case data and linking the remaining jurisdictions’ case information.

As more recent information from the other data sources becomes available e.g., hospitals data, this will be reflected in the linked data as well. Updating the content data regularly will provide a growing longitudinal resource for the original cases, to follow their health journey over time.

Future stages of this project will look at linking other sources of information, such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme. This will ensure the information can look at the impacts of COVID-19 in other sectors outside the health system.

To ensure value for money and improve efficiencies, the AIHW research team are keeping abreast of progress in the data linkage space and seek to align with, and make use of, cloud-based national platforms for data sharing, linking and access as they develop. The linked data platform has been built to ensure interoperability with existing national data sets that have been used during the pandemic, such as the Census.