Data for Decisions

Data for Decisions, incorporating the Patron program of research, is a University of Melbourne research initiative that is managed by the University’s Department of General Practice and Primary Care. With the permission of general practices or other primary care providers, we collate data from de-identified medical records and use the information for research to increase knowledge, quality improvement and improve healthcare practices.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the practices that contribute their EMR data to the Data for Decisions research initiative. Your data is used by researchers across Australia with the aim of developing interventions or tools that can help GPs and patients make informed decisions about optimising their health.

Patron data was recently used by the INTernational ConsoRtium of Primary Care BIg Data Researchers (INTRePID). They compared the pandemic impact on the volume of primary care visits and uptake of virtual care in Australia, Canada, China, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, the UK and the USA. This was published in BMJ Open in 2022. Without your dedication to research and ongoing data contributions, this study would not have been possible. Thank you!