Access to WHA Datasets for research & analysis

Through WHA, Women’s & Newborn’s services across Australia share a vast quantity of data about women’s access to and use of hospital based maternal, newborn and women’s healthcare services. While we work hard to utilise this data effectively to help improve the design, delivery and outcomes from these services, there is vast potential for further expert analysis of these data in order to learn more about what is working, what is not, what’s changing and how care and outcomes for women and newborns could be further improved.

For this reason, WHA is currently developing a new service in consultation with our members, the aim of which is to provide access to our data for ethics approved research projects.  There are many steps to this journey to ensure robust governance of our datasets, protection of the privacy of women & their newborns, and rigor in the assessment and approval of applications.  Consultation with member health services, as trusted Custodians of their patient’s data, is also critical. 

There is potential for significant benefits to women and newborns from this new program.  By providing qualified access for approved researchers, we aim to accelerate the discovery of new knowledge about the changing needs of women and their newborns, which approaches to care are best meeting their needs, and how we can improve the equity and effectiveness of existing services, as well as the experiences and outcomes of care received.   

To register your interest in being kept informed about the opportunity to apply for access to WHA’s datasets for research, please contact us.