A partnership between the Centre for Victorian Data Linkage (CVDL) and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) will help identify and monitor adverse events following immunisation, through the development of near ‘real-time’ linkage of healthcare datasets.
Vaccine Safety Health Link (VSHL) will involve regular linkage of routinely collected immunisation, inpatient, emergency department, deaths, births and general practice datasets.
The resulting linked dataset will allow epidemiologists to investigate trends in healthcare status and outcomes after vaccination, helping ensure the continued safety of all vaccinations administered in Victoria.
VSHL aims to monitor vaccine outcomes and prevent potential risks to the population using the de-identified linked data, which will be held in the CVDL’s secure research environment. VSHL is expected to be able to help detect adverse events following immunisation, as well as rapidly investigate adverse events reported by spontaneous and active surveillance methods including reports made by service providers and consumers.
Vaccine Safety Health Link will provide critical information on the safety profile of vaccines administered in Victoria to guide policy development on vaccine safety and to educate healthcare professionals so that adverse events can be recognised and treated in a timely manner.
The project also aims to support public confidence in vaccines, and it is intended that aggregate vaccine safety information will be made publicly available.
CVDL is working closely with by Professor Jim Buttery and the SAEFVIC team at MCRI on the technical and governance aspects of the project, with a phased introduction planned over the next few months.
For more information about the VSHL project or the work of the Centre for Victorian Data Linkage, please contact Sharon Williams, CVDL Manager, at [email protected]