Better, faster, and cheaper health data research

The SynD Synthetic Health Data Symposium took place on August 8th 2024 in Brisbane. Attendees heard from industry leaders about the latest advancements and practical applications of synthetic data in services, industry, and government and were invited to collaborate and share knowledge with partners across diverse sectors.

We have captured the first presentation of the event by Dr Ben Hachey: “Better, faster, and cheaper health data research”. The presentation provides a clear and compelling overview of what synthetic data is and the associated opportunities and challenges.

Current Challenges in Health Data Research

Ben sets the scene by outlining the inefficiencies in Australia’s health data research workflow, highlighting delays in accessing hospital data, which can take up to two years. These delays hinder study design iterations and project feasibility assessments.

Synthetic Data as a Solution

Ben discusses the potential of synthetic health data, which mimics real data in structure and statistics without compromising privacy and advocated for creating a synthetic health dataset for Australia, akin to the U.S. MIMIC dataset, but safer and more accessible.

Advantages of Synthetic Data

Ben identifies the three primary benefits: (1) improved research via proof-of-concept testing, (2) faster research through productivity gains before real data access, and (3) cheaper research by allowing better funding allocation based on initial proof-of-concept results.

Community of Practice and Infrastructure

Finally, Ben speaks about the purpose of the SynD community of Practice to develop standards, ensure privacy, and foster collaboration. The community also engages students through project-based learning to provide solutions and build a recruitment pipeline.