Table 3

Example of Australian Data Sources that might be used to establish health status of regional population

Routine National Surveillance Data
Census data
Age, gender, socioeconomic index, ethnicity, etc.
Morbidity and Mortality
National Death Index, Burden of Disease Studies[44]
Regular surveys
National Health Survey, ABS Cause of Death statistics etc.
Administrative data sets
Hospital data bases
Inpatient minimum datasets, Outpatient minimum datasets
Medicare data
Medical services MBS (Medical Benefits Schedule) on-line data,

Prescription pharmaceuticals PBS (pharmaceutical benefits schedule) online
Specialist insurers
Veterans Affairs, Transport Accident, WorkCover, etc.
Disease/condition specific, cohort data
Disease Registers
Diabetes, Cancer, joint replacement register
Special Surveys, including
Screening surveys; Region-specific (e.g., Busselton, Dubbo cohort studies), Record-linkage studies, etc.
Primary care data sets
Divisions of general practice; Primary care collaboratives

Note: Full references to all data sources available through correspondence with authors

Segal et al. Implementation Science 2008 3:35   doi:10.1186/1748-5908-3-35