How data is collected, shared and used across aged care

The CSIRO’s Australian e-Health Research Centre (AEHRC) and the Digital Health CRC (DHCRC) have released their report, ‘The Australian aged care data landscape’, which explores how data is collected, shared and used across aged care. The report also highlights associated challenges and opportunities. For the report, researchers interviewed older Australians, their caregivers, clinicians and allied health professionals along with representatives from aged care service providers, public hospitals and federal bodies — to assess the current data landscape of the aged care sector.

Following the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety — which concluded in 2021 that collection, use and consideration of data was not being optimised to benefit those accessing, providing and delivering aged care services — with the March 2025 release of this report, DHCRC CEO Annette Schmiede said: “Four years later, substantial advances in digital health technologies have impacted the aged care landscape and it is critical we understand these changes to better improve outcomes for both healthcare workers and patients.”

Standardised data sharing is vital to connected and coordinated care across the aged care sector, the report says, with data being collected in a breadth of ways and formats, to provide care for older adults living at home or in residential aged care facilities. AEHRC CEO and Research Director Dr David Hansen added that streamlining how this information is shared and stored between settings may reduce the burden on aged care recipients and providers.

“In discussions with care recipients and care givers, we found that care recipients needed to share details of their care repeatedly because data exchange between their service providers is limited,” Hansen said. Interviews conducted by the researchers also found that difficulty accessing data has been a problem for GPs and allied health professionals when providing care, the report also noting that despite the aged care and healthcare sectors having similar data requirements, data exchange between them is limited by the lack of system interoperability.

“In the report we look to lessons learned in the healthcare sector,” Hansen said. “The knowledge can be applied to data exchange both within the aged care sector and between the two sectors.” Hansen also said that the healthcare industry has faced, and begun to solve, many of the same problems that the aged care sector now faces as it integrates new digital technologies.

The report identifies key priorities for the aged care sector. These include promoting common data languages and developing a coordinated, national approach to support data access and use. The report’s findings, the CSIRO said, align with the Australian Government’s Aged Care Data and Digital Strategy 2024–2029. This strategy aims to establish a collaborative, standards-based care system where data collection and use is optimised.

You can read the report here, via the AEHRC website.

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