Medical research – Data for Decisions

This is the third in a series of posts to keep you up-to-date with the research projects we are involved with at Charlton Medical. Data from your visit may be used for this purpose. There are ethical and legal requirements for both researchers and GPs to protect patient privacy and safety and you will have been asked to consent to your medical information being used for research during your first consultation as a new patient.  It is important for you to remember that you can always request that your data is not used for research purposes and that this will not impact the medical care that you will receive.

Data for Decisions is a University of Melbourne research project undertaken by the Department of General Practice.  With your permission, the university collects de-identified medical data (to maintain anonymity and patient privacy) and uses the information for research to increase knowledge, improve healthcare practices and for quality improvement purposes. The data is securely stored in a university-managed repository called Patron. It is important to note that no identifying data is included and you cannot be recognised by the researchers.

De-identified medical records have long been noted as having the potential to improve public health. When data from Charlton Medical are combined with many thousands of other records, a powerful research tool is created with the potential to expand knowledge allowing for service and population health improvements. Some of the projects using data from Data for Decisions are described here.

Charlton Medical is proud to partner with the University of Melbourne in the Data for Decisions project. You can read more about the research Charlton Medical is involved with in the resource tab of the website. Please feel free to speak to our team if you would like more information about how we keep your personal and health information private.