About data collection

• Information Services responds to data requests and publish information from the National Collections
• Health & Disability Intelligence (HDI) produces and maintains the data from the New Zealand Health Surveys
• Environmental Science & Research (ESR)  produces and maintains data on infectious diseases.

This data is cleaned, aggregated and analysed to produce statistics and evidence which is then used by key stakeholders (eg, Ministry of Health, District Health Boards, other Government agencies, national and international researchers, the corporate sector, clinicians and the World Health Organization) to inform policies and decisions regarding current and future health services, for example:

• policy interventions
• funding decisions
• epidemiological research
• programme evaluations.

Data is gathered through a variety of methods. The majority of the data the Ministry of Health holds is collected through established routine administrative systems (eg, hospital events and prescriptions). These are known as the ‘National Collections’.

In addition to data from routine sources, the Ministry of Health also actively gathers data through population-based health surveys.