On 12 April 2019, the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health (MACH) announced new patient-focused research investment for 2019. Of the six projects awarded under the 2019 MACH MRFF Rapid Applied Research Translation grant scheme, Associate Professor Luke Burchill was successful for his project: Closing the gap on Indigenous cardiovascular (CV) health: Improving community outcomes through high impact policy relevant research.

This project will link clinical data collected by Victorian general practices, hospitals, and government agencies for this study. BioGrid Australia (BioGrid) is facilitating the linkage of Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED) and Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD) from selected Victorian hospitals to the NPS MedicineInsight dataset (General Practice data) and the National Death Index from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) for this project.

BioGrid has been collaborating with A/Prof Burchill since August 2018 providing project and data governance advice, assisting with ethics applications and conducting an initial review and analyses of primary care data for the project.

The first of its kind, this will be the largest national study of CV risk and outcomes in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people. By exploring this linked dataset this study aims to reveal the extent to which Indigenous people receive appropriate guideline-based CV risk assessment and treatment in mainstream primary health care services.

This collaboration is a retrospective analysis of the MedicineInsight data evaluating cardiovascular risk, treatment and outcomes in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people across the complete care continuum. Linkage to the National Death Index to identify cardiovascular mortality and risks associated with CV-related deaths in this population will be conducted utilising the established relationship between BioGrid and AIHW to facilitate linkage. Linkage to the NDI is conducted through the BioGrid-AIHW Data Access Agreement – an established agreement set up between BioGrid and AIHW to complete NDI linkage for BioGrid members.

You can find further information on this project on the MACH website, or contact the Principal Investigator, A/Prof Luke Burchill.