Author
Emma L. Brook
Bio: Emma L. Brook is an academic researcher from University of Western Australia. The author has contributed to research in topics: Public health informatics & Record linkage. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 539 citations.
Papers
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TL;DR: The WADLS has supported over 400 studies with over 250 journal publications and 35 graduate research degrees, and there have been unbiased contributions to medical knowledge and identifiable advances in population health arising from the research.
Abstract: Objectives: The report describes the strategic design, steps to full implementation and outcomes achieved by the Western Australian Data Linkage System (WADLS), instigated in 1995 to link up to 40 years of data from over 30 collections for an historical population of 3.7 million. Staged development has seen its expansion, initially from a linkage key to local health data sets, to encompass links to national and local health and welfare data sets, genealogical links and spatial references for mapping applications. Applications: The WADLS has supported over 400 studies with over 250 journal publications and 35 graduate research degrees. Applications have occurred in health services utilisation and outcomes, aetiologic research, disease surveillance and needs analysis, and in methodologic research. Benefits: Longitudinal studies have become cheaper and more complete; deletion of duplicate records and correction of data artifacts have enhanced the quality of information assets; data linkage has conserved patient privacy; community machinery necessary for organised responses to health and social problems has been exercised; and the commercial return on research infrastructure investment has exceeded 1000%. Most importantly, there have been unbiased contributions to medical knowledge and identifiable advances in population health arising from the
481 citations
TL;DR: To measure the ‘public good’ by retrieving, collating, reviewing and assessing outputs from projects using information supplied from the Western Australian Data Linkage System (WADLS) during 1995‐2003.
101 citations
Cited by
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TL;DR: There is a relatively high likelihood that a woman in Western Australia will undergo surgery for POP during her lifetime, and there is justification for a stronger evidence base for prevention, early detection and intervention to reduce the personal and societal costs of these gynecological conditions.
649 citations
TL;DR: The WADLS has supported over 400 studies with over 250 journal publications and 35 graduate research degrees, and there have been unbiased contributions to medical knowledge and identifiable advances in population health arising from the research.
Abstract: Objectives: The report describes the strategic design, steps to full implementation and outcomes achieved by the Western Australian Data Linkage System (WADLS), instigated in 1995 to link up to 40 years of data from over 30 collections for an historical population of 3.7 million. Staged development has seen its expansion, initially from a linkage key to local health data sets, to encompass links to national and local health and welfare data sets, genealogical links and spatial references for mapping applications. Applications: The WADLS has supported over 400 studies with over 250 journal publications and 35 graduate research degrees. Applications have occurred in health services utilisation and outcomes, aetiologic research, disease surveillance and needs analysis, and in methodologic research. Benefits: Longitudinal studies have become cheaper and more complete; deletion of duplicate records and correction of data artifacts have enhanced the quality of information assets; data linkage has conserved patient privacy; community machinery necessary for organised responses to health and social problems has been exercised; and the commercial return on research infrastructure investment has exceeded 1000%. Most importantly, there have been unbiased contributions to medical knowledge and identifiable advances in population health arising from the
481 citations
TL;DR: The need for robust research is drawn to establish whether the high and rising rates of agency contacts and out-of-home care in some settings are effectively reducing child maltreatment, apart from high rates of violent child death in the USA.
286 citations
TL;DR: Linked administrative databases offer a powerful resource for studying important public health issues, including the capacity to study low-prevalence exposure-disease associations, multiple outcome domains within the same cohort of individuals, service utilization and chronic disease patterns, and life course and transgenerational transmission of health.
Abstract: Linked administrative databases offer a powerful resource for studying important public health issues. Methods developed and implemented in several jurisdictions across the globe have achieved high-quality linkages for conducting health and social research without compromising confidentiality. Key data available for linkage include health services utilization, population registries, place of residence, family ties, educational outcomes, and use of social services. Linking events for large populations of individuals across disparate sources and over time permits a range of research possibilities, including the capacity to study low-prevalence exposure-disease associations, multiple outcome domains within the same cohort of individuals, service utilization and chronic disease patterns, and life course and transgenerational transmission of health. Limited information on variables such as individual-level socioeconomic status (SES) and social supports is outweighed by strengths that include comprehensive foll...
277 citations
TL;DR: This paper presents an overview of techniques that allow the linking of databases between organizations while at the same time preserving the privacy of these data, and presents a taxonomy of PPRL techniques to characterize these techniques along 15 dimensions.
241 citations