HSA Biobank Series: Medicare Australia Data Now Available to Researchers!

The HSA Biobank now holds four years of data from the Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for 550 consenting participants. The MBS covers medical services use such as operations, radiotherapy, tests and imaging, and the PBS covers medication use such as chemotherapy treatments.

The MBS/ PBS data therefore adds to the depth of clinical information regarding HSA Biobank participants, such as disease diagnosis and tumour type, which is already currently available to researchers.

This exciting HSA Biobank milestone significantly enhances the translational potential of research projects. Researchers can now incorporate treatment and other data into their studies of tumour characteristics. These datasets can also be used without accessing specimens for a range of clinical and epidemiological studies.

The most common cancer types with available data are sarcoma, breast, gynaecological, and colorectal cancers. Medicare Australia and other data will continue to be gathered for all consenting HSA Biobank participants.

For more information regarding available biospecimens and data, visit the HSA Biobank - Key Numbers. 

Please contact Gillian Scott or Nicki Meagher with any questions about accessing the HSA Biobank resource; email tcrn@unsw.edu.au