The Healthy Ageing Data Platform, established by the National Centre for Healthy Ageing (NCHA), a partnership between Peninsula Health and Monash University, generates research grade data from electronic health record data (EHR) to support research, evidence-based solutions and learning for high priority areas of health related to ageing. The Data Platform, which provides a regularly updated, internally linked EHR dataset for an entire region, has addressed multiple challenges associated with using EHR data for research: lack of interoperability between ‘back end’ systems; lack of processes for researchers to access these data; standardisation of data models; and access to large amounts of unstructured data held within clinical notes to support transformative research across multiple fields. The infrastructure developed has also allowed us to generate technical solutions to support patient care such as: sharing information about aged care residents during a medical transfer and systematically collecting consumer reported outcome measures following discharge from hospital.

Key focusses of the Data Platform include:

• Supporting research aimed at transforming health and care related to ageing for all Australians across multiple areas
• Creating an exemplar of how EHR data can be maximised for health service research
• Driving innovation and developing solutions to tackle challenges at individual, community, and system levels with a goal to enable Australians to live healthy and meaningful lives aligned with their values and needs.

For further information please visit https://www.monash.edu/medicine/national-centre-for-healthy-ageing/data-platform or contact the Research Manager on [email protected]