The Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) has released a comprehensive report on the state of the Australian health and medical data ecosystem, identifying the need for an ambitious, long-term, unified blueprint to unlock Australia’s potential as a leader in data-driven healthcare.
The report, Health Data is a National Asset: Observations into Unlocking the value of Australia’s Health and Medical Data for Research, Improvement and Innovation, maps the key stakeholders, alliances and enablers that currently shape the health and medical data landscape.
DHCRC CEO Annette Schmiede said Australia’s health data is underused but holds enormous value, with the report findings intended to present a starting point to shape a shared vision and way forward to unlock this value.
“Australia is well positioned to pioneer research and innovation that sets the benchmark in the use of health data but the time for action is now,” Ms Schmiede said.
“We need a national health and medical data blueprint to guide long-term investment and greater coordination, enabling world-leading data-driven research to support health care improvement and innovation.
“Realising this vision requires collaboration across government, service providers, researchers, and industry, with benefits flowing to patients, health systems, research, and the wider economy.”
The report defines five key strategic observations:
- No visibility of a national health and medical data blueprint: The absence of a visible, unified, national blueprint limits accountability, coordination, shared commitment to public good outcomes and investment sustainability.
- Discoverability is limited by disconnected infrastructure and access points: Amplifying the discoverability of health data is critical to unlocking its value for research, innovation, and policy.
- Opportunity for strategic consolidation under national stewardship: Australia’s health data ecosystem has reached a critical inflection point. After years of investment and fragmented growth across diverse initiatives and strategies, the next phase requires consolidation and alignment under unified oversight before expanding further.
- Person-centred data infrastructure is under-developed: Consumers must be able to see how their data improves their own health and wellbeing to build trust and unlock the full value of digital health and consenting for health and medical data.
- Long-term resourcing continuity is undefined, and this is a risk to value realisation: A sustainable, long-term funding model – embedded within a national health data strategy – is essential to maintain momentum, safeguard existing infrastructure, and unlock future value.
Report author, DHCRC Healthcare Strategy & Innovation Consultant, Nirasha Parsotam, said a recurring challenge across the five observations is the tension between national cohesion and state-based autonomy.
“Siloed systems and ambiguous data pathways across jurisdictions and organisations create bottlenecks that slow research, hinder innovation, and delay the translation of knowledge into practice,” Ms Parsotam said.
“Overcoming these challenges requires a streamlined, nationally coordinated approach to unlock faster and more impactful use of our national data assets. Without unified national coordination, Australia risks engineering complexity instead of coherence – duplicating capabilities, fragmenting impact and losing momentum.”
The report aligns to the DHCRC remit to enable world-class research to unlock the value of health and medical data and builds on earlier DHCRC reports – Flying Blind 2 and A Call to Action for a National Data Governance Framework – and a recent virtual roundtable co-hosted with Research Australia which identified persistent barriers to data use, including poor discoverability, fragmented access, and lack of interoperability.
Health and medical data are a critical asset for Australians’ health and the nation’s economic prosperity. This report lays the foundation for building a shared national blueprint Australia needs, download the report here.
