Securing the data supply. The availability of population health information in the Netherlands, now and in the future

Effective public health policy and productive scientific research both depend on the availability of data on population health in the Netherlands. The supply of such data is currently not as good as it might be, however. Furthermore, the data that are available are not always utilised to best effect.

That is, in a nutshell, the background to this report by the Advisory Council on Health Research (Raad voor Gezondheidsonderzoek, RGO). In this report, the Council analyses the requirements for empirical data on the health of the Dutch population. The Council also seeks to clarify the extent to which existing data collections can satisfy these requirements, the shortcomings of such data collections and the steps that should be taken to ensure that existing and future data collections are utilised as efficiently as possible. The report concludes with a number of recommendations regarding ways of ensuring that, in the future, public health policy-makers, the health care sector and the scientific community have access to the data they require.