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