health

This page considers official registers about the health of individuals in Australia.

It covers -

• introduction
• immunisation
• HIV
• CJD
• human pituitary hormone
• organ donors

Background information about deployment of that information in health networks features here.

     introduction

Australian epidemiological registers include de-identified and person-specific information.

• Australian Childhood Immunisation Register
• National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System
• National Centre for HIV Epidemiology & Clinical Research
• Australian National CJD Registry
• Human Pituitary Hormone Recipient Database

The Australian health/medical records privacy regime is explored in more detail here and here.

     immunisation

The Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR), established in 1996, covers almost all Australian children, with some 15,000 immunisation providers notifying over 3 million immunisations annually. Children under seven years of age and enrolled in Medicare are automatically listed on the Register.

     HIV

The National Centre for HIV Epidemiology & Clinical Research collects data relating to HIV and AIDS notifications from the states and territories. That data is not de-identified to the same extent as other national epidemiological collections: experienced data analysts familiar with the centre's coding could potentially ascertain the identity of some individual data subjects.

     CJD

The Australian National CJD Registry, established in 1993, provides a comprehensive epidemiological database on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopthy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). Data is coded to ensure the confidentiality of the patient's identity.

     human pituitary hormone

The Human Pituitary Hormone Recipient Database maintained by the federal Department of Health & Aging holds data relating to people who applied for or received treatment with human pituitary derived hormones, including address, treatment details, doctor details and information supplied as part of the Pituitary Hormone Recipient Survey conducted in 1995.

As of 2004 the database holds around 3,000 records.

     organ donors

The Australian Organ Donor Register (AODR), administered by the HIC on behalf of the federal Government, provides a national mechanism for people to formally record their consent (or objection) to becoming an organ and/or tissue donor.

It is envisaged that the Register will ensure that consent/objection to donation can be verified on a 24/7 basis by authorised medical personnel anywhere in Australia.

Participation is voluntary; as of July 2005 around 5.28 million people had supplied information for the Register.

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