Welcome

The Western Australian Genetic Epidemiology Resource (WAGER) is a national resource for genetic epidemiology that builds on the unique Western Australian population health data collected and managed over the last three decades.

These population health data sources are based on linkage within and between the WA statutory collections (all births, deaths, hospitalisations, mental health services contacts, cancer registrations) and additional population disease registers and health surveys. These linkages enable all major diseases/conditions, their risk and protective factors, and the use and role of health services for the Western Australian population to be studied.

Additionally, there are also a large number of disease-focused clinical and epidemiological research population data that have been collected in WA since 1970s. A substantial proportion of these datasets and associated biospecimen banks are population-based. Most of these datasets and biospecimen banks have not yet been linked to the WA Data Linkage System. Clearly, any subjects studied as part of clinical or epidemiological research projects in WA represent a subset of the total WA population and will have complementary data in the core databases. WAGER enables the key infrastructure necessary to allow the integration of all extant and future disease-specific clinical, epidemiological and genetics resources available in WA with biospecimen banks and with the WA Data Linkage System.

The resulting composite entity, WAGER, comprises one of the largest and best-characterised population-based enabling facilities for epidemiological and genetic epidemiological research in the world, and considerably enhances the national medical research capacity.

WAGER also provides a set of tools and computing infrastructure to the Western Australian medical research community to simplify and reduce the workload associated with study conduct while improving the quality and accessibility of the data collected.