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A A$9.5 million ($6 million) national initiative in Australia will align hospital EMRs with global standards so data can be securely used for large-scale research.
Australian universities, state health departments, and the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) have established the Australian Health Data Evidence Network (AHDEN).
The three-year project will adopt the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model, which allows health systems to analyse and compare data securely and consistently.
Aligning data with this model will enable Australian researchers to collaborate with global peers, benchmark health outcomes against other countries, and generate real-world evidence that supports healthcare guidelines and policy decisions.
AHDEN will provide training in data governance and analytics to ensure hospitals, clinicians, and researchers will have the skills to utilise big data for comprehensive studies.
WHY IT MATTERS
University of South Australia (UniSA) professor Nicole Pratt said globally standardised hospital records on diagnoses, treatments, outcomes and demographics can uncover disease patterns, assess treatment effectiveness, and generate evidence to improve clinical guidelines and patient care.
For instance, data could support faster pandemic response. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Prof Pratt noted, Australia struggled with visualising the virus spread and knowing the effectiveness of treatment and vaccines because healthcare data were siloed.
Correlating hospital data nationwide with international standards also opens the door to large-scale collaborations to solve pressing health challenges, added ARDC People Research Data Commons director Dr Adrian Burton.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
Australia is already pushing for broader adoption of digital health standards, particularly FHIR, to ensure healthcare can be exchanged more securely and seamlessly. In July, the Australian Digital Health Agency launched the national health information exchange program alongside a five-year strategy, architecture, and roadmap. As part of this push, the agency tapped Telstra Health to upgrade the underlying architecture for the My Health Record system so it aligns with FHIR standards, while also updating training courses to prepare healthcare workers for the transition.
Flinders University is pursuing a similar effort to AHDEN, SMART-PH (Digitising Information for Practice in Public Health), which is an AI-powered platform that integrates clinical and public health data for surveillance and emergency response.
The development of nationally consistent standards in data collection and sharing was previously suggested by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, to improve the country's future pandemic response.
ON THE RECORD
"Hospital records contain information on diagnoses, treatments, outcomes and patient demographics. By harmonising this information [with international standards], we can uncover patterns in disease, measure the effectiveness of treatments and procedures, and produce the evidence that is needed to improve clinical guidelines leading to better patient care," said AHDEN lead and UniSA professor Pratt.
"By correlating hospital data nationally, we’re enabling researchers to generate real-world evidence that can transform our health system. And because we use a globally recognised standard, our researchers can now work with hospitals around the world in massive collaborations to establish powerful evidence to address humanity’s biggest health challenges," added ARDC director Dr Burton.
