The parents of Victorian babies born in 2020 and 2021 will be asked to hand over their child's medical records as part of a world-first research project aimed at solving a "tsunami" of pressing health problems.
Generation Victoria, or Gen V, is an opt-in program that will track the health of more than 100,000 children in order to supercharge research into health problems including obesity, autism, diabetes and mental illness.
Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy said the program was going to be a "game changer" for Australia, which is suffering a health crisis.
"We are facing a tsunami of chronic disease - diabetes, Alzheimer's - a range of issues in adult health conditions that we know have their genesis in early childhood health and wellbeing," she told reporters on Thursday.
"Being able to track these conditions longer-term ... is going to help us find the cures that we desperately need."
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Data on children's health checks, weight and blood test results, as well as school records and NAPLAN results, will be kept in order to understand the genetic and social roots of illnesses.
Parents will most likely be asked if they are willing to participate soon after their baby is born, and the information will be kept anonymously.
