Data linkage
Cancer
CANCER
Medicare Benefit Schedule and PBS data were requested for all consented participants. The Department of Human Services carried out probabilistic linkage to the Stop Cancer PAIN Trial ID with the MBS and PBS database based on key variables such as date of birth and Medicare number and provided anonymised data to the lead investigator. Data were extracted on 27 November 2019. Services provided through public hospitals such as inpatient, outpatient or emergency care were not recorded in the Stop Cancer PAIN Trial and therefore are not included in the analyses. Consistent with previous Australian healthcare resource utilisation studies, services provided to Department of Veterans Affairs beneficiaries were also excluded because of greater range of services accessible to these beneficiaries compared with the average Australian [