

ACCESS: Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of Sexually Transmissible Infections and Blood Borne Viruses
ACCESS is a national sentinel surveillance network of sexually transmissible infections and blood-borne viruses.
Objective
ACCESS started in 2008, initially focused on chlamydia. In 2016, ACCESS received funding from the Australian Department of Health to improve coverage and capacity for monitoring testing, diagnosis, and treatment of HIV, sexually transmissible infections, hepatitis B and hepatitis C in every state and territory.
ACCESS collates de-identified data from more than 100 sexual health clinics, general practices, hospitals, community health services and pathology laboratories across Australia. Data are automatically extracted from participating services using an innovative health software called GRHANITE™, which means that after the initial setup very little maintenance is required from participating sites.
No details that could identify an individual patient are ever extracted and all extracts are encrypted using industry-leading integrity and data security technology. Patient confidentiality and data security are our highest priorities. Data collected via ACCESS are used to monitor STIs and blood-borne viruses across Australia and also for individual research projects, clinical audits, and jurisdictional surveillance.
We are committed to giving back to our community of partners, by providing participating sites with regular data reports to help improve systems and processes and to enable their own research endeavours.
Timeline
2007–2026.
Approach
How the system is useful for sentinel sites
ACCESS provides site specific reports that describe how many individuals were tested, the characteristics of these individuals and the proportion who test positive. This information has enhanced the capacity of sites to observe local STI and blood-borne virus trends in priority populations.
How the system is useful for state and territory health departments
ACCESS contributes to national and state specific reports by describing how many individuals were tested, the characteristics of these individuals and the proportion who test positive. This information has enhanced the jurisdictions' ability to interpret surveillance trends of blood-borne viruses and STIs.
More information
For more information, including publications, reports, and data visualisations, visit the ACCESS Project Website.
Student opportunities
This project is open to students
Contact the supervisors to learn more about how you can join this project.
Open to
- Honours
- Masters by coursework
- Masters by research
- PhD
Partners
Funding partners
Core funding is from the Australian Department of Health, with the aim to monitor Australia’s progress in the control of blood borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections.
The state governments of New South Wales, Victoria, Northern Territory, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory provide funding for state-level outcomes.
Funding for particular outcomes is also provided by:
- Blood Borne Virus and STI Research, Intervention and Strategic Evaluation Program (BRISE)
- NHMRC Project Grant (APP1082336)
- NHMRC Partnership Grant (GNT1092852)
- Prevention Research Support Program funded by the New South Wales Ministry of Health.
Collaborators
- The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales
- NRL Quality
- HaBIC R2: Health and Biomedical Research Information Technology Unit, Informatics Centre, The University of Melbourne
- More than 100 participating sites across Australia
Project contacts
Main contact

Jason Asselin
Co-Head, Surveillance and Data Linkage group
Student supervisor contacts

Dr Michael Traeger
Deputy Head, HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention; Research Officer

Jason Asselin
Co-Head, Surveillance and Data Linkage group

Professor Margaret Hellard AM
Deputy Director, Programs; Adjunct Professor, Monash University, DEPM.
Project team

Jason Asselin
Co-Head, Surveillance and Data Linkage group

Professor Margaret Hellard AM
Deputy Director, Programs; Adjunct Professor, Monash University, DEPM.

Long Nguyen
Data Manager

Dr Thi Nguyen
Data Scientist

Dr Victoria Polkinghorne
Data programmer

Professor Mark A Stoové
Head of Public Health

Dr Michael Traeger
Deputy Head, HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention; Research Officer

Nyssa Watson
Research Officer
Professor Rebecca Guy
Collaborator
Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales
Dr Allison Carter
Senior Lecturer
Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales
Dr Wayne Dimech
Collaborator
NRL Quality
Dr Htein Linn Aung
Collaborator
Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales
Stella Lintzeris
Collaborator
Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales
