Share Data

Why is data sharing important in health research?

Data sharing increases Australia’s return on investment in health and medical research by enabling researchers to reuse existing data to inform new research questions and initiate new research collaborations. This will accelerate research answers and extend the value of consumer/participant contributions in a systematic and meaningful way. Data sharing has a range of benefits - learn more here .

Benefits of Data Sharing:

Some key benefits include:

  • Scientific
    • Inform and allow for testing of new research hypotheses
    • Increase the power of research data by combining and comparing results from different studies in meta-analyses
    • Allow research findings to be validated and re-examined
    • Generate new findings or conclusions through different analyses
  • Economic
    • Data sharing can maximise the value of research funding by reducing duplication of effort or unnecessary repetition
  • Ethical
    • Data sharing respects the generosity of research participants by increasing the utility and value of their contribution by reducing the need to recollect data

What can secondary data be used for?

Data from health studies can be used for a wide variety of secondary purposes in research - learn more here .

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How to share clinical trials data

A great way to get started is by contacting one of the HeSANDA Nodes. Our Node partners can explain the process and help you get set up to start sharing data including:

  • Establishing data governance and ethics arrangements
  • Preparing your documentation and processes
  • Getting you setup to use the Health Data Australia platform

Contact details for the HeSANDA nodes can be viewed on our home page.

If you require further information or assistance, please contact ARDC or refer to our user documentation .

How is Heath Data Australia supporting health research?

To assist secondary data users in understanding the real-world impact of health and medical research data sharing, the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) has created an online guide that outlines a theoretical framework for four key data reuse scenarios. This practical guide was extracted from research papers, and consultation with stakeholders and the research community.

Read the guide

How to access data via Health Data Australia

With Health Data Australia, researchers can explore descriptions of data from our publishing partners, identify relevant datasets, and request access. These requests will then be forwarded to the data owner for review.

To start requesting data, simply login with your AAF account.

Learn more