Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health

Clinical Registries

Our Priority Focus Area project themed around data driven clinical decision-making.

About the project

The Clin­i­cal Reg­istries Project is a statewide ini­tia­tive to improve how clin­i­cal reg­istries are devel­oped, con­nect­ed and used across South Australia.

It brings togeth­er clin­i­cians, con­sumers, data experts and sys­tem lead­ers to enhance the qual­i­ty of reg­istry data and how it is used to improve care.

The project aims to improve health sys­tem per­for­mance and patient out­comes by improv­ing the con­sis­ten­cy and qual­i­ty of reg­istry data, reduc­ing dupli­ca­tion and strength­en­ing links between reg­istries and oth­er health sys­tems and services.

The oppor­tu­ni­ty

Clin­i­cal reg­istries play an impor­tant role in under­stand­ing how care varies, mea­sur­ing out­comes and iden­ti­fy­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for improvement.

Across South Aus­tralia, reg­istries vary in their matu­ri­ty, data stan­dards and abil­i­ty to con­nect with clin­i­cal systems.

The Clin­i­cal Reg­istries Project pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty to:

  • strength­en reg­istry infrastructure
  • improve align­ment with nation­al frameworks
  • advance the use of patient-report­ed measures
  • embed reg­istries as a core part of a learn­ing health sys­tem across the state.

Our approach

The work is sup­port­ed by strong gov­er­nance, clin­i­cal lead­er­ship and part­ner­ships with Local Health Net­works, the Depart­ment for Health and Well­be­ing and key reg­istry stakeholders.

A key objec­tive is to devel­op a clin­i­cal reg­istries roadmap that will guide how the health system:

  • estab­lish­es a sus­tain­able, statewide reg­istry system
  • con­nects data between reg­istries and health infor­ma­tion systems
  • sup­ports clin­i­cal care, plan­ning, research and policy
  • aligns with nation­al stan­dards and SA Health priorities
  • pro­motes equi­ty, trans­paren­cy and time­ly insights.

Our peo­ple

Professor Stephen McDonald

Clinical Registries Priority Focus Area Clinical Lead

Pro­fes­sor Stephen McDon­ald is a nephrol­o­gist and clin­i­cian-researcher. He is cur­rent­ly Direc­tor of the Ade­laide Epi­Cen­tre, staff nephrol­o­gist at the Roy­al Ade­laide Hos­pi­tal and Clin­i­cal Lead for Coun­try Renal Ser­vices for South Aus­tralia and the Clin­i­cal Lead of the Renal Statewide Clin­i­cal Network.

He has an exten­sive back­ground in clin­i­cal reg­istries. He has been Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of the Aus­tralia and New Zealand Dial­y­sis and Trans­plant Reg­istry for 20 years and is a founder and aca­d­e­m­ic co-lead of the South Aus­tralian Health and Med­ical Research Insti­tute Reg­istry Cen­tre. He was the inau­gur­al co-chair of the Aus­tralian Clin­i­cal Tri­als Alliance Reg­istries Spe­cial Inter­est Group.

His research inter­ests cen­tre around the epi­demi­ol­o­gy of renal dis­ease and the use of reg­istry data to exam­ine access to and out­comes of health­care. He has been close­ly involved with the devel­op­ment of reg­istry-based tri­als, and trans­la­tion of reg­istry out­put into clin­i­cal practice.

Our focus

The project will:

  • Devel­op and imple­ment a reg­istries roadmap to strength­en reg­istry infra­struc­ture, sup­port­ed by a clear­ly defined resourc­ing and invest­ment strategy.
  • Estab­lish and embed a pol­i­cy and gov­er­nance frame­work for clin­i­cal reg­istries across SA Health to ensure con­sis­tent, high-qual­i­ty and account­able practice.
  • Build and sus­tain a com­mu­ni­ty of reg­istry users to sup­port col­lab­o­ra­tion, knowl­edge shar­ing and skills development.
  • Cre­ate and main­tain a cen­tral reg­is­ter of reg­istries to improve vis­i­bil­i­ty, coor­di­na­tion and over­sight across the system.
  • Design and imple­ment auto­mat­ed data cap­ture solu­tions to improve data qual­i­ty, reduce the bur­den on clin­i­cians and allow for more time­ly insights from data.

Ques­tions?

To learn more about the Clin­i­cal Reg­istries Project, email CEIH.​Registries@​sa.​gov.​au.