Health Data Linkage Committee
Background Information
The
Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), hosted by the Cancer Institute NSW, is a collaborative venture funded by eight member organisations (ACT Health, the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission, the Cancer Institute NSW, NSW Department of Health, the Sax Institute, the University of Newcastle, the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney).
Guide to Health Record Linkage Services
For more detailed information regarding CHeReL and information relating to its use, please refer to the CHeReL website for their latest version of the
Guide to CHeReL services (PDF).
For information about the linked datasets available and the types of linkage services offered by CHeReL please refer to the
CHeReL website.
CHeReL Services available to the University of New South Wales
As a member organisation, UNSW receives back a proportion of its membership fee in ‘free services’.
The policy for allocating the free services to UNSW researchers currently mimics the existing University of Sydney model.
Investigators seeking access to the UNSW free services will be expected to fund the remaining cost of the services they require using research funds from other sources.
For further details regarding eligibility criteria, selection criteria and process, and project applications please download
Information for Applicants and the
Project Application Form.
As noted in the ‘Information for applicants’, researchers will be required to submit a quotation obtained from CHeReL with their application for free CHeReL services. A CHeReL quotation needs at least 2 weeks lead time to prepare; please take this into consideration when planning your application.
Researchers will also be required to submit proof of ethics approval from the
NSW Health and Cancer Institute NSW Population & Health Services Research Ethics Committee on application for CHeReL linkage credits.
Centre for Health Record Linkage
| Contact Details | Street address | Mailing address |
Tel: (02) 8374 3515
Fax: (02) 8374 3500
| Level 1, Suite 9, Bay 9
Locomotive Street
Australian Technology Park
Eveleigh NSW 2015 | Centre for Health Record Linkage
Cancer Institute NSW
PO Box 41
Alexandria NSW 1435 |
2009 Funding Rounds
The next round for HDL Committee applications
opens Friday (29th May, 2009) and will
close on Friday (19th June, 2009). This is the last funding round under the current linkage credits scheme.
Closing dates for application
Applications should be received by 5pm on:
- Friday 30 January, 2009
- Friday 19 June, 2009
One electronic copy should be sent to
Outcomes of previous funding rounds
Health Data Linkage applications that were successful in previous funding rounds:
Round 1 – 11 April 2008
- Evaluation of stroke outcomes in a large, Australian population: an analysis of linked hospital and mortality data
M Gattellari, B Jalaludin, J Worthington and M Mohsin
- Morbidity in people with hepatitis B and C in New South Wales
HF Gidding, MG Law, GJ Dore, J Amin and K Ward
- Australian HIV Observational Database (AHOD) Hospitalisation Linkage Project Protocol
MG Law, KA Falster, J Anderson, K Watson and S Mallal
- The incidence of cancer and use of chemotherapeutic and biologic agents in Australian veterans
SA Pearson and R Ward
Round 2 - 23 October 2008
- Mental Illness and Substance Use: impact on birth and neonatal outcomes
E Sullivan, L Burns, M-P Austin, L Hilder, X Fenglian
Round 3 - 5 February 2009
- Mailed feedback for at-risk drinkers presenting to emergency departments (EDs) in rural NSW
AE Harvard, AP Shakeshaft, KM Conigrave
- Relationship between 'best practice' primary care, health status, hospitalisation, and death for general practice patients with diabetes
EJ Comino, MF Harris, N Zwar
- People with Mental Health Disorders (MHD) and Cognitive Disabilities (CD) in the Criminal Justice System (CJS)
E Baldry, L Dowse, I Webster
- An injury profile for rear seat vehicle occupants using linked health and crash data
J Brown, LE Bilston, J Hatfield
Further Information
For further information regarding access to University of New South Wales free services, please contact Dr Margaret Faedo on (02) 9382 8861 or
Other Funding available
The Clinical Excellence Commission, also a CHeReL member organisation, will
'fund' projects addressing safety and quality in health care. If you are conducting work of this kind the CEC welcomes applications from researchers to apply for their linkage credits. Information about the CEC linkage access program and application form can be found at
http://www.cec.health.nsw.gov.au
Additional information is available by phoning Lesley Harvey (02) 9382 7607 or emailing
Note: Researchers applying to the Clinical Excellence Commission may not apply to the UNSW HDL Committee for the same project concurrently.
UNSW Health Data Linkage Committee Members
| Committee Member | Affiliation |
| Dr Elizabeth Sullivan | National Perinatal Statistics Unit |
| A/Prof Matthew Law | National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research |
| Dr Bin Jalaludin | SPHCM |
| Dr Lucy Burns | National Drug and Alcohol Reseach Centre |
| Dr Lesley Ashton | Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research |
| Dr Sallie Pearson | Prince of Wales Clinical School |
| Dr Elizabeth Comino | Centre for Health Equity Training Research and Evaluation (CHETRE) |
| A/Prof Glenda Lawrence | SPHCM |
Chair – Professor Denis Wakefield
UNSW CHeReL Management Committee Representative – Dr Claire Vajdic