Summary of the Project:

The objective of DPAU is to support researcher access to data from multiple Contributing Research Studies (CRS) and enable new insights into ageing, ageing-related diseases and dementia risk, with the aim of transforming the epidemiology of ageing and dementia.

The challenges posed by dementia are undeniably complex. DPAU is collecting and aggregating CRS data on physical and brain health collected from research participants, health services and government agencies. It provides an efficient and auditable process for securely storing, sharing and analysing sensitive data to accelerate the understanding of dementia and improve diagnosis and treatment.

Utilising the template developed by our partner, Dementias Platform UK (DPUK), and Secure eResearch Platform (SeRP) technology deployed at Monash University, DPAU provides a platform to:

Enhance data discovery functionality, provide high-quality data curation, mediate data access via an auditable and efficient approval process adaptable to be compliant with any relevant governance requirement, provide secure data transfer function and reduce the need for continued data transfer between research groups and provide virtual workspaces for analysing data.

DPAU hosted on Monash SeRP provides an environment operating to the highest data protection standards, meaning research participants and researchers can be confident that the data are managed securely and responsibly, thereby maintaining privacy whilst maximising scientific value.

Monash SeRP is a secure, trusted and scalable environment for data sharing, governance, control and management services for researchers. For studies conducted in Australia, DPAU provides an opportunity to share Australian data without the potential risks associated with sharing data outside of the Australian jurisdiction. DPAU is envisaged to complement the DPUK and other satellite dementias platforms around the globe. While a distributed set of platforms can assist in retaining data sovereignty, they also have the potential to open up even further the sharing of research data across platforms within a common SeRP virtual workspace.