QUT Data Linkage Fellowship extension

A long-standing area of concern for road safety in Queensland was the lack of comprehensive data linkage in order to understand the true picture of road trauma. Privacy and legislative restrictions around the sharing of personal information between agencies has been one of the key issues behind this lack of linkage.

The establishment of Data Linkage Fellowship in 2018, which is held by Dr Angela Watson from the Queensland University of Technology, has contributed to significant progress in overcoming these issues. Dr Watson has been pivotal in the evolution and success of the Road Safety Data Bureau, in which she is co-located with relevant Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), Queensland Police Service (QPS) and Queensland Health staff. The Bureau has delivered insights into several key road safety issues, including motorcycle safety, young drivers, older drivers and benchmarking for the current Queensland Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan.

The culmination of this work was the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement with Queensland Health, which allows effective linkage between QPS, TMR, Queensland Health and compulsory third party data to occur around serious injury for the first time. This will provide a more accurate quantification of the severity and prevalence of road trauma.  Such insights can then be used to prioritise funding, target interventions to decrease risk, and more accurately measure the burden and costs of road trauma.

MAIC’s recent funding extension on the basis of these advancements will support the continuation of Dr Watson’s Fellowship for a further three years from 1 January 2025. Under this new agreement, Dr Watson will also mentor a PhD student for the first time as a means of cultivating further expertise in this space into the future.