A decade of data linkage in Western Australia: strategic design, applications and benefits of the WA data linkage system.

Objectives: The report describes the strategic design, steps to full implementation and outcomes achieved by the Western Australian Data Linkage System (WADLS), instigated in 1995 to link up to 40 years of data from over 30 collections for an historical population of 3.7 million. Staged development has seen its expansion, initially from a linkage key to local health data sets, to encompass links to national and local health and welfare data sets, genealogical links and spatial references for mapping applications.

Public good through data linkage: measuring research outputs from the Western Australian Data Linkage System.

Objective: To measure the 'public good' by retrieving, collating, reviewing and assessing outputs from projects using information supplied from the Western Australian Data Linkage System (WADLS) during 1995-2003.

Methods: Using WADLS project application records, all investigators were contacted and requested to submit research outputs for review.

Results: 708 outputs comprising journal articles, reports, presentations, conference proceedings, media, theses and other items were reported.