About Record Linkage
Information about our health and health care is recorded throughout our lives as we come in contact with the health system. Much of this information is kept in databases by hospitals, health departments and other organisations that provide health care. Record linkage brings together information that relates to the same individual, family, place or event from different databases. In this way, it is possible to construct chronological sequences of health events for individuals. Combined together, these individual “stories” create a larger story about the health of people. This information can be used to plan and improve health services for the population.
Record linkage provides information that gives a more complete picture of the health of the population than was previously possible. The information can be used to:
- assess the safety and quality of health care
- assess the effectiveness of preventive interventions (eg. screening)
- obtain follow-up information on participants in research studies and surveys
- monitor trends in the patterns and costs of health care.
Linking data that already exists is relatively quick and cost-effective compared to doing a research study from the beginning. Record linkage provides data for whole populations that would be prohibitively expensive to collect in any other way. Record linkage also allows research questions to be tested or developed on already existing data, allowing better targeting of funding for new research. Record linkage therefore allows more research to be carried out within a given budget and helps ensure that funds available to carry out health and medical research are used most effectively.