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Winthrop Professor D'Arcy Holman received a standing ovation from a packed auditorium on Tuesday 29 July.

Professor Holman's Valedictory Address, on the eve of his retirement, was titled "Health, Political Arithmetic and Public Accountability: Bringing Down the Great Cth-State Data Divide". His dynamic address brought past and present collaborators, colleagues and students to their feet in respect.

In what could be only a brief look at a stellar 40 year career in public health, D'Arcy looked at the Western Australian world of public health in the 20 years before and after the introduction of the WA Data Linkage System. A huge collaborative effort between DOHWA, UWA, TICHR and Curtin, WADLS was established in 1995 to connect all available health and related information for the WA population. WADLS allows ethically approved health and medical research, planning and evaluation projects to be done on rigorously maintained, completely anonymous data sets, with the aim of improving the health of Western Australians. This massive feat, for which D'Arcy and the many collaborators are justifiably proud, was a world first on many levels and is still best practice globally.

Demonstrating pre-WADLS research with a demonstration of his own, highly identifiable health records, D'Arcy touched on the laborious, time consuming and identifiable data search methods employed. Fast forwarding to post-WADLS, he introduced research by a number of his own PhD students, showcasing not only important research and impressive researchers but the power of the system, the important questions which could be answered with real evidence, and the need for Commonwealth data sharing. This was demonstrated through research of enormous scope that was carried out in a brief 4-year window when Commonwealth data on GP visits, ageing and pharmaceuticals were provided. The conclusions reached through the WA data for this specific and vital research area were shown to be very different when all the required information was available - conclusions that could save the lives of thousands of Australians every year.

With this point so ably and indisputably demonstrated, D'Arcy closed his valedictory address with a call to younger researchers to carry on the stellar work - and for the flawed double-system State/Cth health to commence talking to each other for the good of all Australians.

The evening closed with a cocktail function at the UniClub, which was both reunion and celebration for everyone there.

Media references

Fiona Maley 64881299

Jennifer Di Risio 6488 1318