The Health Studies Australian National Data Asset (HeSANDA) program is a national initiative of the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) and is supported by National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). It is a collaboration of 9 HeSANDA nodes that represent over 70 health research organisations. South Australia leads one of the 9 national ‘Nodes’.
The research community across Australia has been working together through HeSANDA to develop Health Data Australia, a catalogue for health and medical researchers to register a description of their research so it’s easy to discover. A federated structure of partners across Australia then links researchers and facilitates data sharing and data access.
The Health Data Australia Platform was launched on July 18 2023 at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). The project team is now focusing on recruiting additional trials, building awareness of the platform, and exploring the expansion of the scheme to include other types of health research.
The HeSANDA program and the infrastructure behind the Health Data Australia platform enhances the visibility of investigator-initiated clinical trials, improves the availability of research data for secondary use, maximises the return on investment of past and future research and ultimately improves health outcomes for Australians.