UNIMELB_MORGAN-Hannah_VYT-LOCAL-2023.mp4

My PhD pilots a new method of vaccine safety surveillance. I do this by linking de-identified data from the Australian Immunisation Register and healthcare records to analyse people's interactions with the healthcare system after their vaccination. The data gathered through this analysis helps to guide education materials and policy to ensure that vaccines are safe for everyone. This video summary was created as part of the 2023 Visualise Your Thesis Competition.

TRANSCRIPT

Vaccines are one of our greatest public health achievements and save about five million lives every year around the world.

Vaccines are tested before the public is allowed to get them to make sure they work and are safe. But these tests may not pick up the rarest side effects.

This is why it is important for scientists to keep studying vaccines after they are given to the wider community in larger numbers.

Most of the time we find out about vaccine side effects when people tell us.

But we know this is just the tip of the iceberg, there are some side effects we don’t hear about. So we are making a new tool find them.

We do this by anonymously linking vaccination data to data about people’s visits to their doctor or the hospital.

Now we can investigate people’s vaccine experiences across the whole of Victoria!

Armed with the information we can calm nerves or change policy so that vaccines are safe for everyone and continue to protect us against nasty diseases.