The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) provides reliable, regular and relevant information and statistics on Australia’s health and welfare.

We are committed to providing high quality, national data and analysis across the health, housing and community services sectors. This covers a wide range of areas, from health and welfare expenditure, hospitals, disease and injury, disability and mental health, to ageing, disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, homelessness, and Indigenous health and welfare.

Project: Investigating Bias in Data Linkage Results

Summary

The Institute’s Data Linkage Unit undertakes probabilistic data linkage of many of Australia’s key health and welfare datasets to enable analysis of service pathways and outcomes by policy analysts. This probabilistic data linkage is undertaken using in-house data linkage software (SAS-based DALI), which the AIHW is currently considering replacing with a new off-the-shelf solution (Python based SPLINK). These software solutions are based on differing algorithms. This project would involve gaining an understanding of these key differences and investigating the impact of them on linkage outputs.

Note: if you wish to apply for this project, list it as a preference under the 'Other' category in your Expression of Interest form and email Science.Internships@anu.edu.au.