Funding Allocation
The Hon Julie Bishop MP, Minister for Education, Science and Training, announced on 27 November 2006 that she had provisionally allocated $20 million to support ‘Population Health and Clinical Data Linkage’, pending development of a suitable investment plan. The NCRIS Committee has authorised the facilitation of an Investment Plan for the Population Health and Clinical Data Linkage capability.
The Facilitator
The facilitator is Professor Michael Frommer, Director of the Sydney Health Projects Group (SHPG) and Adjunct Professor in the School of Public Health at The University of Sydney.
In accordance with the NCRIS Investment Framework, Professor Frommer will consult stakeholders to identify infrastructure requirements in detail and to develop a plan for addressing those needs, covering issues such as:
- the setting of strategic priorities for the components identified in the Roadmap;
- the role of existing facilities and infrastructure;
- financing of the proposal (in the context of whole-of-program-life costs) from both NCRIS program funds and co-investments from the interested parties;
- access issues and charging regimens;
- management and governance structure; and
- coordination of investment planning across proposals to ensure the best use of available funds.
A provisional timeline for the facilitation process is as follows:
|
Date (2007) approx |
Activity |
| March - April |
Review of the current status of major exisiting systems for health data linkage in Australia and internationally |
| April - August |
Interviews with key informants in state capital cities |
| Early July |
Facilitator meets with the Expert Steering Group to consider directions that should be taken in the Investment Plan |
| Early July |
Completion of a short issues paper and its distribution via email to interested parties |
| July - August |
Consultation workshops and meetings with stakeholders in capital cities |
| Late August |
Completion of outline draft of Investment Plan |
| Early September |
Facilitator meets again with the Expert Steering Group to consider draft Investment Plan and major conclusions from the facilitation process to date |
| Mid -September |
Draft Investment Plan considered by NCRIS Committee |
| 31 October |
Final Investment Plan completed |
Updates and details about this Facilitation process and the capital city consultation workshops, including dates, times, venues and registration, will be posted progressively at the following URL:
http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/ncrishealthdatalink/
Anyone is welcome to attend the consultation workshops - early registration will assist the Facilitator in the smooth running of these events.
For further information and to register your interest in the Facilitation process, please contact the Facilitator:
Professor Michael Frommer
Director, Sydney Health Projects Group
Room 322, Victor Coppleson Building D02
The University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Phone: (02) 9351 4394
Fax: (02) 9351 7218
Email: mfrommer@med.usyd.edu.au
Discussion Paper and Workshops
In 2006, the NCRIS Committee, DEST and the NHMRC instituted a scoping process within the research community, prior to proceeding with a process to develop a full investment plan for the Population Health and Clinical Data Linkage capability.
The NCRIS Committee appointed Professor Richard Madden (Director of the National Centre for Classification in Health at The University of Sydney) to:
- Write a short discussion paper
(41.5 KB) to focus activities on the key issues from the NCRIS Committee’s perspective; and
- Chair workshops in Sydney (11 September 2006) and Perth (15 September 2006) to examine the current justification and feasibility of investment in a national health research data linkage capability, and a role NCRIS might play in its development that is consistent with the NCRIS principles and likely to be supported by stakeholders, particularly the primary 'owners' of health-related data..
Responses to the discussion paper and feedback obtained from stakeholders during the workshops informed the revision of the section of the NCRIS Roadmap dealing with Population Health and Clinical Data Linkage.
Expert Steering Group
The NCRIS Committee appointed an Expert Steering Group, chaired by Professor Louisa Jorm (Research Director, the Sax Institute), to:
- advise the Committee on the broad conceptual framework for a possible national health data linkage capability, initially by drafting a revision of the relevant section of the NCRIS Roadmap (using as a starting point Professor Madden’s report on the scoping workshops) for consideration and approval by the Committee;
- advise the Committee on arrangements for the facilitation of an investment plan for a national health data linkage capability, including providing advice on potential facilitators; and
- provide expert advice and assistance to the facilitator during the development of an Investment Plan.
The members of the Expert Steering Group are:
| Professor Louisa Jorm |
Chair of the Expert Steering Group;
Foundation Processor of Population Health, University of Western Sydney; and
Research Director, the Sax Institute. |
| Ms Jacqui Ball |
A/g Assistant Secretary, Economic and Statistical Analysis Branch, Portfolio Strategies Division, Department of Health and Aging. |
| Professor Richard Madden |
Director, National Centre for Classification in Health, The University of Sydney. |
| Dr Merran Smith |
Director, Information Collection and Management, Health Support System, WA Department of Health. |
| Mr Mick Reid |
Former Director-General, NSW Ministry of Scientific and Medical Research. |
| Ms Julie Roediger |
Deputy Director, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. |
| Dr David Hansen |
Project Leader, Health Data Integration, e-Health Metadata & Ontologies, e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO. |
| Dr Marienne Hibbert |
Project Director, Bio21 : Molecular Medicine Informatics Model (MMIM), Melbourne Health. |
| Ms Sally Goodspeed |
Assistant Statistician, Indigenous and Health Statistics Branch, Australian Bureau of Statistics. |
The NCRIS Committee has approved the revised Population Health and Clinical Data Linkage section of the NCRIS Roadmap 
(79.2 KB), as the basis to commence the Facilitation process leading to the development of an Investment Plan for the capability.
Enquiries regarding the development of the investment plan for Population Health and Clinical Data Linkage and the likely Facilitation process should be addressed to:
Professor Michael Frommer
Director, Sydney Health Projects Group
Room 322, Victor Coppleson Building D02
The University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Phone: (02) 9351 4394
Fax: (02) 9351 7218
Email: mfrommer@med.usyd.edu.au
Please note Professor Frommer has been provided with the stakeholder mailing list and any relevant submissions received in response to the exposure draft of the NCRIS Roadmap.
Professor Frommer, with the assistance of the Sydney Health Projects Group, has established a website to inform and update stakeholders about this NCRIS Facilitation process, to host discussions and comments, and to enable interested people to register for the consultation workshops in the capital cities. The website can be accessed at the following URL:
http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/ncrishealthdatalink/
The NCRIS Secretariat can be contacted by email at: ncris@dest.gov.au