In this episode we sit down for a chat with Natalia Kacperek from the WA Office of Digital Government and Prof David Preen, the Chair in Public Health at the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia. We discuss the issue of linked administrative data and PeopleWA, the WA Government’s new platform launched in late 2023 for making a range of government data accessible to Government Departments and academic researchers. Natalia talks us through her role in leading the rollout of PeopleWA and takes us through what to expect from the platform and the current limitations. David talks to us about the historical context of linked data, how it has been game-changing in improving understanding the health of the community, where there have been some recent challenges, and his hopes that PeopleWA will mark an end to some of the key issues that were causing blockages and delays in obtaining linked data for important health research. We are planning a follow-up episode to hear how successful the first year or two of PeopleWA has been, and any future changes that may be planned.
If you would like to read more about the Office of Digital Government, you can visit here: https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-the-premier-and-cabinet/office-of-digital-government
If you would like to read more about PeopleWA, you can visit here: https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-the-premier-and-cabinet/office-of-digital-government/peoplewa
If you would like to read more about David and his work, you can visit here: https://www.uwa.edu.au/schools/research/david-preen
As always, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, you can contact us at: meaningofhealth@outlook.com or via twitter @healthmeanswhat or via FaceBook @MeaningofHealth or via Instagram @healthmeanswhat
