James H Boyd

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Chair at La Trobe University

Objective To assess the prevalence and trends of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Western Australia (WA) from 2010 to 2020 using linked pathology data. Design A retrospective observational cohort study using linked de-identified data from WA pathology providers, hospital morbidity records and mortality records. Setting A Western Australian populat...

Objectives Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, yet no comprehensive evaluation of its global economic costs exists. We conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis to examine the costs of CHD treatment by region and CHD subtypes, examine whether there are cost difference by sex, and examine costi...

This Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) aimed to investigate the impact of electronic medical record (EMR) implementation on the process and outcomes of nursing handover by synthesising the existing scientific literature. Clinical nursing handover involves transferring patient information, responsibility and accountability to ensure continuity of care...

Introduction The autoimmune encephalitides (AE) are a heterogeneous group of neurological disorders with significant morbidity and healthcare costs. Despite advancements in understanding their pathophysiology, uncertainties persist regarding long-term prognosis and optimal management. This study aims to address these gaps, focusing on immunotherape...

Over recent years, emergency telehealth has developed rapidly in Australasia. From the patient's perspective, establishing trust with a healthcare provider is uniquely challenging when using the audio and video modalities commonly used in telehealth. It is crucial to consider how we may improve the delivery of care through this emerging pathway if...

Introduction Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant burden on health systems globally, with limited up-to-date information on health system costs, particularly for non-dialysis patients. This study estimates the direct healthcare costs of CKD within Australia. Methods The study utilised the CKD.WA dataset, a linked repository for the state...

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for people worldwide, yet differences in the likelihood of receiving optimal care occur depend on gender. This study therefore aimed to explore the healthcare experiences of men and women living with CHD. A systematic search of qualitative research was undertaken, followin...

The healthcare sector's adoption of data and digital technologies is hindered by stringent data privacy regulations. Synthetic data, common data models (CDMs) and federated data ecosystems present promising solutions to these challenges. This workshop explored the potential of synthetic data to revolutionise health research, education and innovatio...

Background In Australia, diabetes is the fastest growing chronic condition, with prevalence trebling over the past three decades. Despite reported sex differences in diabetes outcomes, disparities in management and health targets remain unclear. This population-based retrospective study used MedicineInsight primary healthcare data to investigate se...

Introduction Organisations are increasingly aware of the risks and responsibilities of handling personally identifying information (PII). These factors not only influence internal data management practices but also impact on data linkage arrangements with other parties. Some linkage environments are particularly sensitive to the release or use of P...

Background Health Information Managers (HIMs) play a crucial role in the management and governance of health information ensuring the accuracy, confidentiality and accessibility of health data for clinical care and business operational purposes. This role also extends to education and training in the workplace. Objective The aim of this scoping re...

Emergency department (ED) overcrowding remains a persistent challenge in global public health, leading to detrimental outcomes for patients and healthcare professionals. Traditional approaches to improve this issue have been insufficient, prompting exploration of novel strategies such as virtual care interventions. Our team developed the first comp...

BACKGROUND Health equity between metropolitan and rural areas is a global concern, especially in vast countries like Australia, Canada, and the USA. Virtual care models in healthcare settings show promise in reducing disparities, with virtual hospitals potentially bridging the gap for isolated or underserved regions. However, evidence-based strateg...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic placed an additional mental health burden on individuals and families, resulting in widespread service access problems. Digital mental health interventions suggest promise for improved accessibility. Recent reviews have shown emerging evidence for individual use and early evidence for multiusers. However, attrition...

Current research into the digital healthcare landscape reveals a significant gap in understanding the perspectives of consumers with lived health experiences on sharing their health data for research purposes. Despite the substantial value that such shared information can bring to healthcare research, policy development, and system improvement, ins...

BACKGROUND The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare has been steadily increasing for over two decades. Integrating AI into Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) has the potential to reshape neonatal care and improve outcomes. OBJECTIVE To analyse the current AI research landscape for predicting clinical outcomes and length of stay in...

Introduction Telehealth service provision and uptake has rapidly increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing healthcare to be delivered safely and reducing non-essential face-to-face (F2F) contact. In Australia, the expansion of subsidisation of telehealth during COVID has led to its permanent installation within Australian primary care in 2022...

Introduction Neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) entail a group of mostly inherited genetic disorders with heterogeneous phenotypes impacting muscles, the central or peripheral nervous system. They can lead to severe disabilities and shortened lifespans. Despite their severity, NMDs often lack in public awareness and appropriate medical and social suppor...

Objective To investigate public willingness to share sensitive health information for research, health policy and clinical practice. Methods A total of 1,003 Australian respondents answered an online, attribute-driven, survey in which participants were asked to accept or reject hypothetical choice sets based on a willingness to share their health...

Abstract Background: Most neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) are classified as rare. This rareness is associated with information gaps regarding correct diagnosis and appropriate disease management. Digital solutions can close the gap by providing platforms allowing collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of relevant information to care...

Introduction Experiences and determinants connected with type 2 diabetes mellitus-associated erectile dysfunction (T2DMED) in health appointments are not well understood and infrequently reported. This systematic review was undertaken to synthesise evidence of the experiences, facilitators, and barriers around screening ED in men with T2DM during h...

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an additional mental health burden on individuals and on families. Reviews of e-Mental Health platforms for individual users suggest promise for improved accessibility and similar evidence of utility for dyadic or family use is growing. Attrition rates remain high for online mental health platforms and ad...

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) often affects men with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) due to microvascular damage. However, medical interventions are not always appropriate. Aim: This scoping review aimed to answer the following question: What evidence is available about the effects of non-medical and non-invasive healthcare interventions...

BACKGROUND Mental illness has become a prevalent issue impacting adolescents worldwide. Many barriers, including stigma and poor health literacy, prevent this population group from accessing reliable mental health care services. Synchronous text-therapy counselling is an under-utilised therapeutic approach in combatting adolescent mental illness. P...

Background Mental illness has become a prevalent issue impacting adolescents worldwide. Many barriers, including stigma and poor health literacy, prevent this population group from accessing reliable mental health care services. Synchronous text–therapy counseling is an underused therapeutic approach in combating adolescent mental illness. Phone-ba...

Training and development programs are increasingly delivered online with numerous studies reporting no differences in learning outcomes between online and traditional learning. However, there are no established standardized methods to evaluate the effectiveness of online learning. This review aims to map the state of research around health-related...

Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major global health problem that affects approximately one in 10 adults. Up to 90% of individuals with CKD go undetected until its progression to advanced stages, invariably leading to death in the absence of treatment. The project aims to fill information gaps around the burden of CKD in the Western Aus...

Aim: In 2020, the European Kidney Function Consortium (EKFC) published a new creatinine-based equation to estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) to overcome known limitations in existing equations. The aim of this study is to model the potential impact on service referral and health expenditure of routine reporting of eGFR using the EKFC equat...

Objective To provide a review of prediction models that have been used to measure clinical or pathological progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Design Scoping review. Data sources Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL and Scopus from the year 2011 to 17th February 2022. Study selection All English written studies that are published in peer-reviewed jo...

Objective The potential for data collected in general practice to be linked and used to address health system challenges of maintaining quality care, accessibility and safety, including pandemic support, has led to an increased interest in public acceptability of data sharing, however practitioners have rarely been asked to share their opinions on...

Objective: A new virtual ED service was introduced into a hospital network in the northern suburbs of Melbourne in response to changing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 'virtual ED' utilises a telehealth model as a means of assessment for appropriately selected patients to facilitate either complete care or navigation into streamlined pathw...

Background Privacy preserving record linkage (PPRL) methods using Bloom filters have shown promise for use in operational linkage settings. However real-world evaluations are required to confirm their suitability in practice. Methods An extract of records from the Western Australian (WA) Hospital Morbidity Data Collection 2011–2015 and WA Death Re...

Nurses need to take a strategic leadership role in managing disruptive health technologies that can be adopted to improve health and care within the population. While innovative technology developments continue to advance quickly, systematic changes to the health and care systems are not always geared to take advantage of these advances at the same...

Objective The potential for data collected in general practice to be linked and used to address health system challenges of maintaining quality care, accessibility and safety, including pandemic support, has led to an increased interest in public acceptability of data sharing, however practitioners have rarely been asked to share their opinions on...

Background Erectile dysfunction (ED) in men living with Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Indonesia is rarely discussed. This study explored the lived experiences of young- to middle-aged Indonesian men living with T2DM and ED to identify the related healthcare support they received from their local public health center. Methods A qualitative-des...

BACKGROUND Emergency telehealth has been used to improve rural and remote patients’ access to specialist care in the hope of mitigating the significant health disparities experienced by people living in these locations. Patient disposition decisions in rural and remote emergency departments (ED) can be complex and largely dependent on the expertise...

Background Emergency telehealth has been used to improve access of patients residing in rural and remote areas to specialist care in the hope of mitigating the significant health disparities that they experience. Patient disposition decisions in rural and remote emergency departments (EDs) can be complex and largely dependent on the expertise and e...

Introduction The Western Australia (WA) Acute TeleStroke Programme commenced incrementally across regional WA during 2016–2017. Since the introduction of the TeleStroke Programme, there has been monitoring of service outputs, including regional patient access to tertiary stroke specialist advice and reperfusion treatment; however, the impact of con...

Introduction The Western Australia Acute TeleStroke Programme commenced incrementally across regional Western Australia (WA) during 2016-2017. Since the introduction of the TeleStroke Programme, there has been monitoring of service outputs including regional patient access to tertiary stroke specialist advice and reperfusion treatment, however, the...

Introduction While the quantity and type of datasets used by data linkage projects is growing, there remain some datasets that are ‘not available’ or ‘hard to access’ by researchers and linkers, either due to legal/regulatory constraints restricting the release of personally identifying information or because of privacy or reputational concerns. Ad...

Introduction Privacy-Preserving Record Linkage (PPRL) presents opportunities to improve privacy protection when performing record linkage on the most sensitive data. Currently our linkage agency performs all linkages in clear text, but expansion of data sources is now including extremely sensitive data, such as justice data. Understanding that spec...

Introduction During 2019, the Western Australian (WA) government and Curtin University’s Centre for Data Linkage (CDL) created a large, de-identified researchable database – the Social Investment Data Resource (SIDR) – to support government in delivering targeted early interventions to young offenders and their families to reduce the likelihood of...

IntroductionPrivacy-Preserving Record Linkage (PPRL) presents opportunities to improve privacy protection when performing record linkage on the most sensitive data. Currently our linkage agency performs all linkages in clear text, but expansion of data sources is now including extremely sensitive data, such as justice data. Understanding that speci...

IntroductionNotwithstanding the growth in the number and type of datasets that are being included in data linkage projects, some datasets remain ‘hard to include’ in operational linkage systems. Legal or regulatory constraints often restrict the release of personally identifying information from some datasets; alternatively, it may be privacy or re...

Objective: To quantify postinjury cardiovascular-related health service use experienced by mid to older aged adults hospitalised for injury, compared with uninjured adults. Additionally, to explore the effect of beta-blocker medications on postinjury cardiovascular hospitalisations among injury patients, given the potential cardioprotective effect...

Background: Emergency telehealth has been used to improve accessibility of rural and remote patients to specialist care. Evidence to date has demonstrated effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of telehealth in rural and remote emergency departments within a variety of contexts. However, systematic reviews to date have not focused on the rural and r...

The Centre for Data Linkage (CDL) was established at Curtin University, Western Australia, to develop infrastructure to enable cross-jurisdictional record linkage in Australia. The CDL’s operating model makes use of the ‘separation principle’, with content data typically provided to researchers directly by the data custodian; jurisdictional linkage...

General practice is often a patient’s first point of contact with the health system and the gateway to specialist services. In Australia different aspects of the health system are managed by the Commonwealth Government and individual state/territory governments. Although there is a long history of research using administrative data in Australia, th...

Background: The objective of this study was to describe and quantify the long-term hospital service use (HSU) after burn injury and associated costs in a population-based cohort of patients with unintentional burns and compare with uninjured people. Methods: This retrospective population-based cohort study analysed de-identified linked health ad...

Background/rationale The Western Australian (WA) government and the Centre for Data Linkage (CDL) at Curtin University are creating a large, de-identified researchable database – the Social Investment Data Resource (SIDR) – to support a key government initiative called Target 120 (T120). T120 delivers targeted early interventions to young offenders...

Background General practice is a rich source of health data for research. It is an important resource which can be used to improve patient management, reduce costs and improve patient outcomes. Traditionally, the challenge has been around access to general practice data which remains hard to ‘join up’. This abstract describes technology developed t...

Background and Purpose— Despite evidence to support the prescription of antihypertensive medications before hospital discharge to promote medication adherence and prevent recurrent events, many patients with stroke miss out on these medications at discharge. We aimed to examine patient, clinical, and system-level differences in the prescription of...

IntroductionAvailable and practical methods for privacy preserving linkage have shortcomings: methods utilising anonymous linkage codes provide limited accuracy while methods based on Bloom filters have proven vulnerable to frequency-based attacks. Objectives In this paper, we present and evaluate a novel protocol that aims to meld both the accurac...

Introduction The need for increased privacy protection in data linkage has driven the development of privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL) techniques. A popular technique using Bloom filters with cryptographic analyses, modifications, and hashing variations to optimise privacy has been the focus of much research in this area. With few applicati...

Objective: Burns cause acute damage to the peripheral nervous system with published reports identifying that neurological changes after injury remain for a prolonged period. To shed some light on potential mechanisms, we assessed injury etiology and patterns of nervous system morbidity after injury by comparing long-term hospital admissions data o...

Objectives To determine the feasibility of linking data from the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR), the National Death Index (NDI), and state‐managed databases for hospital admissions and emergency presentations; to evaluate data completeness and concordance between datasets for common variables. Design, setting, participants Cohort desi...

Background: Injury triggers a range of systemic effects including inflammation and immune responses. This study aimed to compare infectious disease admissions after burn and other types of injury using linked hospital admissions data. Methods: A retrospective longitudinal study using linked health data of all patients admitted with burns in West...

Background A number of studies report high prevalence of mental health conditions among burn patients. However there is a need to understand differences in the temporal relationship between mental health conditions and intentional and unintentional burns to hasten psychological prevention and intervention. This study aims to compare the socio-demog...

Background Burns are a devastating injury that can cause physical and psychological issues. Limited data exist on long-term mental health (MH) after unintentional burns sustained during childhood. This study assessed long-term MH admissions after paediatric burns. Methods This retrospective cohort study included all children (< 18 years) hospitali...

This first collaborative demonstration project of the International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) has recently been completed. This project collated data from five data linkage centres across Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada to investigate the effect of vasectomy reversal on prostate cancer risk in vasectomized men. We discuss the...

Introduction Privacy preserving record linkage (PPRL) using encoded or hashed data has potential to enable large-scale record linkage of previously inaccessible data. With limited real-world evaluation and implementation of PPRL at scale it is challenging for linkage practitioners to judiciously balance data protection with the accuracy and usabili...

Introduction Survivors of stroke have complex needs from ongoing disabilities and have increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. The societal costs are therefore substantial. Person-level longitudinal data on the longer-term hospital utilizations of patients with stroke in Australia, and the factors that may influence usage in this setting, are ra...

IntroductionEvidence on the effect of vasectomy and vasectomy reversal on risk of prostate cancer is conflicting, with the issue of detection bias a key criticism. In this study we examined the effect of vasectomy reversal on prostate cancer risk in a cohort of vasectomised men. Objectives and ApproachA proof of concept study involving the Internat...

Introduction Businesses worldwide are increasingly adopting the storage, compute and analytical services provided by cloud computing. Yet, few operational linkage units are keeping pace with this world of technological change - most use legacy systems approaching their limits with the rapidly increasing size and range of datasets now required for l...

Introduction Record linkage units around the world use probabilistic linkage techniques for routine linkage of large datasets. It is widely known how probabilities are converted to agreement and disagreement weights for each field, yet there has been little exploration of the methodology to optimally convert field similarity scores into partial wei...

Introduction Record linkage is inherently uncertain, with all linkages containing some amount of false positive and false negative errors. Previous results have suggested that linkage error may not be evenly distributed throughout the population, with particular subgroups exhibiting higher rates of linkage error. Record linkage is inherently uncert...

Background: Record linkage is an important tool for epidemiologists and health planners. Record linkage studies will generally contain some level of residual record linkage error, where individual records are either incorrectly marked as belonging to the same individual, or incorrectly marked as belonging to separate individuals. A key question is...

Introduction Recent advances in data linkage infrastructure in Australia mean that data can be linked based on various identifiers across datasets. In a first for Australia, we tested the feasibility of linking data between a clinical quality disease registry with Australian and state government health data across multiple jurisdictions. Objective...

IntroductionStudies have repeatedly found that a small number of offenders account for a disproportionate amount of crime. High-rate, persistent offenders (so-called ‘prolific’ offenders) have a major impact on local crime rates and public perceptions of safety, and place a substantial financial and social burden on communities. Objectives and Appr...

Background: The objective of this study was to describe and quantify mental health (MH) admissions experienced by patients with unintentional burns subsequent to their injury. Methods: A retrospective population-based cohort study that used de-identified linked hospital, death and mental health in-patient case registry data of all burn patients...

Purpose: Evidence on the effect of vasectomy on prostate cancer is conflicting, with the issue of detection bias a key criticism. We examine the effect of vasectomy reversal on prostate cancer risk in a cohort of vasectomised men; evidence of a protective effect would be consistent with a harmful effect of vasectomy on prostate cancer risk, while...

Objective: To compare hospitalisations for diabetes mellitus (DM) after injury experienced by burn patients, non-burn trauma patients and people with no record of injury admission, adjusting for socio-demographic, health and injury factors. Methods: Linked hospital and death data for a burn patient cohort (n=30,997) in Western Australia during t...

Linkage of population-based administrative data is a valuable tool for combining detailed individual-level information from different sources for research. While not a substitute for classical studies based on primary data collection, analyses of linked administrative data can answer questions that require large sample sizes or detailed data on har...

Objective: To compare post-injury cardiovascular disease (CVD) hospital admissions experienced by burn patients with non-burn trauma patients and people with no record of injury, adjusting for socio-demographic, health and injury factors. Methods: Linked hospital and death data were analysed for a cohort of burn patients (n=30,997) hospitalised...

Background Probabilistic record linkage is a process used to bring together person-based records from within the same dataset (de-duplication) or from disparate datasets using pairwise comparisons and matching probabilities. The linkage strategy and associated match probabilities are often estimated through investigations into data quality and manu...

Objective: To investigate the geographic distribution and temporal trends of burn admissions in an Australian setting. Methods: Health administrative data of all persons hospitalised for a first burn in Western Australia for the period 2000-2012 were used. Crude and standardised incident rates were generated for each region. Maps of crude rates...

Objectives The Population Health Research Network (PHRN) was established to increase data linkage capacity in Australia. A proof of concept study investigating cross border hospital use and hospital mortality was undertaken to demonstrate the effectiveness of increased data linkage capacity in supporting nationally significant health research. The...

Objectives Linkage of “big data” can provide the answers to a variety of health questions that benefit the delivery of patient care, impact of policies, system planning and evaluation. In some jurisdictions, legal and operational barriers may prevent data linkage for research and system evaluation. Collaboration between international research insti...

Objectives While the most obvious impact of a burn is a visible scar, there are hidden impacts. The main contributors to adverse health outcomes after burns are the metabolic, inflammatory, immune and endocrine changes that occur in response to the initial injury. These responses have been shown to persist for at least three years after paediatric...

Objectives Record linkage is a powerful technique which transforms discrete episode data into longitudinal person-based records. These records enable the construction and analysis of complex pathways of health and disease progression, and service use. Achieving high linkage quality is essential for ensuring the quality and integrity of research bas...

Objectives While record linkage has become a strategic research priority within Australia and internationally, legal and administrative issues prevent data linkage in some situations due to privacy concerns. Even current best practices in record linkage carry some privacy risk as they require the release of personally identifying information to tru...

Objectives The grouping of record-pairs to determine which administrative records belong to the same individual is an important process in record linkage. A variety of grouping methods are used but the relative benefits of each are unknown. We evaluate a number of grouping methods against the traditional merge based clustering approach using large...

In an era where the volume of structured and unstructured digital data has exploded, there has been an enormous growth in the creation of data about individuals that can be used for understanding and treating disease. Joining these records together at an individual level provides a complete picture of a patient’s interaction with health services an...

Background: Severe burn triggers systemic responses that result in reduced muscle mass and changes in bone formation, with recent evidence also suggesting systemic effects on bone after minor burns. The aim of this study was to assess if people hospitalised with a burn have increased admissions for fractures after discharge. Methods: A populatio...

Background Hospitals and death registries in Australia are operated under individual state government jurisdictions. Some state borders are located in heavily populated areas or are located near to major capital cities. Mortality indicators for hospital located near state borders may not be estimated accurately if patients are lost as they cross st...

Background Burn injury initiates an acute inflammatory response that subsequently drives wound repair. However, acute disruption to the immune response is also common, leading to susceptibility to sepsis and increased morbidity and mortality. Despite increased understanding of the impact of burn injury on the immune system in the acute phase, littl...

Background: There is a growing volume of data that indicates that serious injury suppresses immune function, predisposing individuals to infectious complications. With recent evidence showing long-term immune dysfunction after less severe burn, this study aimed to investigate post-burn infectious disease morbidity and assess if burn patients have...

Severe burn injury significantly affects cardiovascular function for up to 3 years. However, whether this leads to long-term pathology is unknown. The impact of non-severe burn injury, which accounts for over 80% of admissions in developed countries, has not been investigated. Using a rodent model of non-severe burn injury with subsequent echocardi...

Background and objective: The systemic responses triggered by burns and resuscitative measures may cause pulmonary damage and edema in the acute phase. These effects may occur in the absence of inhalation injury. Currently, there is a paucity of data on the recovery of the respiratory system postburn. This study aimed to examine 10-year hospital s...

Background: While the most obvious impact of burn is on the skin, systemic responses also occur after burn, including intestinal inflammation. The objective of this study was to assess if burns are associated with increased long-term admissions for gastrointestinal diseases. Methods: A population-based longitudinal study using linked hospital mo...