Position paper for health authorities: Archived clinical pathology data - treasure to revalue and appropriate

Archived clinical pathology data (ACPD) is recognized as useful for research. Given our privileged de-identified ACPD from South West Pathology Service (SWPS), attempt is made to estimate what it would cost any researcher without such privilege to generate the same data. The Ethics Committee of the Area Health Service approved a request for Dr. Uba Nwose to use de-identified ACPD acquired by the SWPS for clinical laboratory-based translational biomedical science research. 10-years (1999 ' 2008) have been pooled to constitute the database. Data include blood sugar, cholesterol, D-dimer, ESR, glucose tolerance, haematocrit, HbA1c, homocysteine, serum creatinine, total protein and vitamins [C & E] amongst others. For this report, the bulk-billed-cost of tests were estimated based on number and unit price of each test performed. AU$17,507,136.85 is the cost paid by Medicare in the period. This amount is a conservative estimate that could be spent to generate such 10-years data in the absence of ACPD. The health/pathology service has not given any financial research grant. However, the support-in-kind is worth more than celebrated competitive research grants. It calls for revaluatrion by academic, research and scientific institutions the use of ACPD. For the countries where such provision is non-existent, this report provides a 'Position Paper' to present to the directorates or institutes of health authorities to appropriate the value of ACPD and approve of their use as a research treasure and resource management tool.