10 Years of Data Linkage

Understanding what happens in the years after a burn injury is an important part of improving care. Population health data linkage is one valuable source of this knowledge, helping researchers identify patterns in health and recovery across large groups of people over time.

As part of treatment and ongoing care, information is collected to help health services understand and support each person’s care. With the appropriate approvals and privacy protections, selected information from different health records can be brought together for research.

For burns research, this has helped us look beyond the initial injury and treatment to better understand longer-term health and recovery. Led by Associate Professor Janine Duke and collaborating researchers, this body of work contributed to more than 30 publications and opened new areas of research into cancer, inflammatory disease, mental health and other longer-term health conditions.

For our Burn Family, the impact is a growing understanding of burn injury across a lifetime. What we learn can help identify important questions for future research and where care improvements may be needed.

The 10-year milestone was also an opportunity to recognise the burn survivors whose experiences and health information have contributed to this body of research, as well as the researchers, donors, and collaborators who have supported the work. This includes Woodside Energy, the WA Department of Health, hospitals of the State Burns Service and university partners.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this important body of research and helped us continue learning more about life after burn injury.