In 2018 there were calls for a national approach to data governance for private health and aged care – there still are

A new report for the Digital Health CRC states, “we are still weighed down by defensive policies, legislation and mindsets related to information governance.”

“Australia requires a harmonised set of national health, medical technology, and pharmaceutical research governance arrangements,” the CRC’s Isobel Frean and colleagues, suggest.

They call for

* a national framework for research access to deidentified government datasets, “without complex approval processes”

* research for the three year review of the Data Availability and Transparency Act

* researcher access to HMR and clinical data, without compromising privacy

* a national dataset, for researchers and the med tech/pharma sector

“Australia can’t afford to wait another five years to provide certainty for clinical researchers and innovators, those looking to run clinical trials or those responding to the next epidemic, nor can we continue to put a national data and information governance framework onto the back burner for future governments to address,” they warn.