A focus on 'closing the gap' has hidden the "huge" gains made in indigenous health outcomes and obstructs future progress, says a population health expert.
Ray Lovett from the Australian National University says over the past 20 years the rates of cardiovascular disease among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have dropped by 43 per cent - largely due to a significant drop in smoking rates.
But he says most would be unaware of this because the data is constantly compared to the health outcomes of non-indigenous Australians.
"There has been major progress in the reduction of smoking rates, cardiovascular deaths and vaccine coverage among indigenous people, but these achievements get overshadowed by the bad news stories," Dr Lovett said.
In a paper published in The Lancet, Dr Lovett argues this constant comparison and negative framing of the data is problematic and calls for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to better control the way the data is analysed.
"If you look at things like the prime minister's report to parliament on 'Closing the Gap', primary reference is given to how Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people are going in comparison to non-indigenous people in Australia, so that's how the data is always presented first.
"That creates a problem because declines (in cardiovascular disease) have been occurring in both populations quite dramatically, so the relative difference never changes," Dr Lovett explained to AAP.
"But if you take the indigenous data by itself and look at it alone it shows a 43 per cent decline in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cardiovascular disease in the last 20 years, that's huge."
Dr Lovett says the way the data is viewed and used is essential to improving the health outcomes for Indigenous Australians.
It's not about taking our "eye off the ball" when it comes to Indigenous health but about taking a closer look at the ball, says Dr Lovett
"We should first be looking at how the Aboriginal population is doing by itself and looking at trends over time, because this will show you whether the trends are going down or up or staying the same," he said.
Dr Lovett says once its better understood what's driving down the rates of cardiovascular disease then improved interventions can be implemented.
"We know that smoking is heavily related to cardiovascular disease, that's also declining, so the natural kind of logic is we need to re-double our efforts in tobacco control to further drive reductions in cardiovascular disease."
