Private Healthcare Australia’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Rachel David, says ongoing access to healthcare data is essential to improve health outcomes for Australian consumers.
“The recent withdrawal of a particular dataset from the data.gov.au website following decrypting concerns raised by researchers, should not derail the process of providing high-value datasets to researchers and stakeholders,” said Dr David.
“The Department of Health has assured consumers that no patient information was compromised and no information about providers was publicly identified or released. To my knowledge this is a one off event.
“This service provided by the Department of Health enables academics and health-related researchers to access and interrogate Government held data. It is crucial in the development of improved health policy, particularly preventative health care options and has a far-reaching impact across the Australian community,” said Dr David.
Media contact: Jen Eddy 0439240755