About this Provider
Established in 2009, the Population Health Research Network is a national collaboration of specialist data linkage units that enable the linkage of health and human services data for important research. Researchers across Australia use this data to advance our understanding of disease, develop treatments and improve services for the benefit of all Australians.
PHRN’s Program Office, oversees a network of Project Participants and Data Linkage Units located in each Australian state and territory that expertly link sensitive data, in ways that minimise privacy risks and meet legal and ethical requirements. PHRN also supports secure research environments and related e-research tools.
The PHRN was implemented through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy framework, an initiative of the Australian Government. Commonwealth, state and territory government agencies and academic institutions make significant cash and in-kind contributions to PHRN activities.
Contact Information
- Building 685, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley Western Australia 6009
TYPE OF CLIENTS
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PHRN is addressing Australia’s grand challenges in health services, new therapeutics, healthy ageing, social and environmental impacts on health, and prevention of emerging diseases.
Thousands of researchers, health professionals, government policy-makers and planners have used the PHRN’s vast resource of over 300 linked datasets to answer important research and evaluation questions. Our clients represent the following sectors.
- Universities and medical research institutes
- State/territory and Commonwealth government departments and agencies
- Non-government organisations
- Industry
Our clients use linked data to:
- Investigate the distribution, origin, associated conditions and outcomes of disease
- Evaluate policies and services
- Assess the health and wellbeing of Australians
- Better identify issues of population health importance, plan services and interventions to address these issues
- Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of vaccines, services, treatments and interventions.
HOW WE CAN HELP
The Population Health Research Network (PHRN) is dedicated to providing a suite of services that enhance the capability and efficiency of health research in Australia. Here is an overview of the key activities and services offered by the PHRN.
The Metadata Platform provides a centralised platform, to help researchers identify what linked datasets are available across Australia. The search, browse, and filter capability and presentation of metadata in a standardised format enables researchers to better evaluate the suitability of datasets for research. The platform also provides researchers with access to: data item lists, data dictionaries, and data quality reports; FAQs; and all peer reviewed journal articles and publications associated with each of the data collections.
Our established network of Australia-wide specialist data linkage units link and integrate large population datasets. These include:
- Routine linkage between Australian Government, state and territory data collections (single jurisdiction linkage and cross jurisdiction linkage)
- Ad hoc linkages of research and clinical trial data to population level data on request
- Intergenerational linkage to establish links between individuals who are related. Data may be used to assess the degree of relatedness of individuals within study samples, locate common ancestors, estimate genetic risk and describe the familial burden of comorbid conditions.
- Geocoding by converting an address into a latitude/longitude, using a set of reference data. This map point can then be placed within spatial boundaries such as the Statistical Area Levels 1 and 2 (SA1 and SA2 respectively) and Local Government Area (LGA). Data Linkage Services assigns the boundaries and derives the indices using mapping and concordance tables created by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The PHRN has supported the development of linked data assets including the National Integrated Health Services Information (NIHSI), the National Disability Data Asset (NDDA) and the Covid-19 register and linked data set. Linked data assets bring multiple data collections together to make it easier for researchers to conduct complex cross-sector and cross-jurisdictional research.
The Secure Unified Research Environment (SURE) is purpose-built for researchers and data custodians and provides a powerful and secure platform for both the sharing and analysis of sensitive health data. SURE offers data custodians a flexible and trusted way to share health data with the research community, while also giving researchers access to approved linked data. This national asset is used by over 700 researchers, and more than 50 government and health data custodians across Australia.
The Online Application System allows researchers who are interested in applying for access to linked data for cross and multi-jurisdictional research projects to apply directly via the PHRN Online Application System and track their applications.
The Online Researcher Training is a free online course designed to help researchers better understand linked data and navigate the access and approval process.
The PHRN consists of a national network of client services officers who support and guide researchers through the application and approval process. Client services staff advise researchers on the types of data collections available; project design and feasibility, data governance, logistics for data delivery, and provide cost estimates. To facilitate the application and approval process, the client services officers also liaise with key external and internal stakeholders on behalf of researchers, including technical and linkage project staff from the data linkage unit and data custodians.
We provide expert service to investigate emerging ethical and legal issues, provide advice on ethics, law and governance, and advocate for improved legislation, regulation, and policy to support sharing of sensitive data for research.
Services
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Capability
The PHRN provides Australia with the capabilities to link and access a wide range of health and human services data across different jurisdictions and provides remote access to linked datasets in a secure environment.
The PHRN is comprised of seven data linkage units that, together, routinely link over 300 datasets across Australia, equating to 16 billion linked records. We now have close to two decades of core Commonwealth, state and territory health data linked at the person level.
Data collections span across sectors including: birth registrations and perinatal data; health; hospital; disease registries; education; families; justice; police; public housing; pharmaceutical; general practice; cohort studies; clinical registries; disability; and death registrations.
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Expertise
PHRN expertly links sensitive data and makes it available to researchers in ways that minimise privacy risks and meet legal and ethical requirements. We have expertise in the following areas:
Data linkage; Data extraction;
Data linkage
Data extraction
Secure access environments
Research design
Training
Metadata
Data governance
Ethics and law
Social implications
In Australia, all research projects using linked data must be first submitted to the relevant data linkage unit to be assessed for technical feasibility. Formal approval must then be obtained from:
1. The data custodian responsible for each data set; and
2. All relevant Human Research Ethics Committee(s) (HREC).
Additional approvals may be required, depending on the data collection(s) involved and/or the jurisdiction. The approvals required for each data collection are listed in the PHRN Metadata Platform.
The process of obtaining approvals and the time involved will vary between data linkage units, data custodians and HRECs.
For more information, see https://www.phrn.org.au/for-researchers/data-access/
The PHRN is a national network of Project Participants and Data Linkage Units located in each Australian state and territory. The University of Western Australia is the lead agent of the PHRN. The PHRN is coordinated by a Program Office located in Perth, Western Australia.
Below are links to the PHRN data linkage units.
