REALISING THE POTENTIAL OF BIG HEALTH DATA FOR AUSTRALIAN PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGICAL RESEARCH. HOW ARE WE GOING?

Speaker: Sallie Pearson, University of NSW Seminar Date: Tuesday April 5 2016, 12.00pm Abstract: We have comprehensive data on community medical care, emergency department visits, hospitalisations and medicines dispensed in the community. Linkage of these health administrative datasets with other routinely collected data such as cancer and death registrations creates a powerful and comprehensive tool to investigate the full spectrum of care including pathways to diagnosis, patterns and outcomes of treatment and end-of-life care. Our capacity to undertake this type of research has been bolstered recently by the significant investment in data infrastructure and processes to facilitate the linkage of Commonwealth and State based records. In her presentation, Sallie will discuss the challenges and opportunities for undertaking research in Australia using linked cross-jurisdictional data, particularly as it pertains to the post-market surveillance of prescribed medicines.