Key updates about the system are available here.
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2024 updates
23 February 2024 – Amendments to search screens
Several updates to NCIS Online have been made to enhance user experience:
- New restricted cases exclusion statement on search screens
- Amendments to search screens to allow tailored search options by jurisdiction which matches user permissions
- New functionality to the way a saved query is updated
System update - Amendments to search screens - 23 February 2024 (PDF, 151.13 KB) (External link)
20 February 2023 - Supplementary data update
Supplementary data sourced from Births, Deaths and Marriages Registries for deaths reported to an Australian coroner has been uploaded to the NCIS:
- Indigenous status and Place of birth data for 2021 and 2022
System update - Supplementary data update - 20 February 2024 (PDF, 122.6 KB) (External link)
2023 updates
18 December 2023 – Recommencement of Australian address geocoding
Geocoding of residential, incident and death addresses for Australian cases in the NCIS has recommenced using a new external service provided by Intech Solutions (External link).
Over 30,000 new addresses have recently been assigned geographic boundary information using Intech’s product and have been uploaded into the NCIS.
Users may notice the following differences to the geocoding output available under this new process:
- prioritisation of geocoding
- different result code indicators
- certain boundary areas may not be available if an address match is not exact.
3 November 2023 – Query Design – duplicate status column added
A new column Duplicate status will indicate in Query design results if there is more than one case record on the NCIS for the same fatality.
5 October 2023 - Display of occupation and industry fields
Updates have been made to NCIS Online to enhance the use and display of occupation and industry fields.
Changes include:
- updating field labels to improve consistency
- simpler searching and selection of codeset values
- improved Query Design output for certain occupation and industry fields
- additional information boxes to provide occupation and industry codeset background
System update - Occupation and industry display - 5 October 2023 (PDF, 252.2 KB) (External link)
20 September 2023 – Amendment to NCIS Online Help screen and increased document size limit
Changes have been applied to NCIS Online:
- Update of links on NCIS Online Help page including:
- Redirection of the link for Search guides
- Updated information on how to request a data extract
- Updated information on how to contact us
- Increase of the file size limit for documents uploaded to the NCIS - from 3MB to 10MB (applicable to coders only)
29 August 2023 - Increased data and document availability
Addressing gaps in the data collection is a key activity to support our strategic goal to maintain data as outlined in our Strategic plan 2022-26.
There has been a recent expansion of data and document availability on the NCIS. This involves:
- autopsy and toxicology reports for South Australian cases
- the type of autopsy reports available for Queensland cases
- earlier availability of key data fields for Queensland cases
- full police notification of death forms for Northern Territory cases.
The latest versions of ICD-10, ICD-10AM and work related death codes that support coronial data in the NCIS have also been uploaded.
14 July 2023 - Change to Queensland local case numbers
The content and format for local case numbers associated with Queensland cases reported since 1 August 2009 have been changed in the NCIS.
29 June 2023 - Amendments to NCIS screens
Updates have been made to the following screens in NCIS Online:
- User Details screen – all fields now read-only
- NSW/VIC screen – renamed to Additional data entry
System update - Amendments to NCIS screens - 29 June 2023 (PDF, 417.27 KB) (External link)
2022 updates
14 December 2022 - Fatal facts
Fatal facts has undergone a major upgrade.
The refreshed tool includes:
- new search functionality
- screen and user help improvements
- updated category tags
- updated case summaries
- additional summaries for cases closed up until June 2022.
Fatal facts is a separate tool from the NCIS database. These changes do not impact NCIS Online.
System update - Fatal facts upgrade - 14 December 2022 (PDF, 148.47 KB) (External link)
23 August 2022 - Supplementary data update
Several updates have been made to the supplementary data that supports coronial information in the NCIS:
- final ICD-10 codes for Australian deaths registered in 2018
- revised ICD-10 codes for Australian deaths registered in 2019
- indigenous status and Place of birth data sourced from Births, Deaths and Marriages Registries for deaths reported to an Australian coroner in 2020.
System update - Supplementary data update - 23 August 2022 (PDF, 444.78 KB) (External link)
9 February 2022 - Supplementary data
A bug fix has been implemented to allow the extraction of ICD-10 underlying codes using the NCIS query design screen.
A number of updates have also been made to the supplementary codes that support coronial data in the NCIS, including:
- geocoding of incident, residential and death addresses for the October to December 2021 quarter
- preliminary ICD-10 codes for Australian deaths registered in 2020
- ICD-10AM codes for New Zealand deaths registered in 2019
- additional codes for work related deaths that occurred in 2020.
2021 updates
14 October 2021 - Supplementary data
A number of updates have been applied to the supplementary codes that support Australian coronial data in the NCIS:
- the display of ICD-10 codes has been enhanced
- two quarterly updates (April to June, July to September) for incident, residential and death address geocoding have been completed
- Indigenous status and Place of birth data sourced from Births, Deaths and Marriages Registries for deaths reported to an Australian coroner in 2019 have been uploaded to the NCIS.
21 April 2021 - Supplementary data
A number of updates have been applied to supplementary codes that support Australian coronial data on the NCIS:
- the January to March quarterly update for incident, residential and death address geocoding has been completed
- final ICD-10 codes for Australian 2017 cases and Revised ICD-10 codes for Australian 2018 cases have been added to the NCIS.
2020 updates
18 December 2020 - Supplementary data
A number of updates have applied to supplementary codes that support Australian coronial data on the NCIS
- the October to December quarterly update for incident, residential and death address geocoding has been completed
- preliminary ICD-10 codes for Australian 2018 cases have been updated to include z codes and preliminary ICD-10 codes for Australian 2019 cases have been added
- Safe Work Australia codes for 2019 work related deaths have been added.
29 October 2020 - Geocoding
Users can now search and/or return geocodes applied to death address on the NCIS.
4 August 2020 - Field renamed
Two changes were implemented to the NCIS in August 2020:
- a new section titled System notices is now available on the NCIS Home page
- the Last seen alive field has been renamed Last known alive.
1 July 2020 - Supplementary data
A number of updates have been applied to external codes that support coronial data on the NCIS:
- death address geocoding is now available for the first time for NCIS records
- the quarterly update for incident and residential address geocoding has been completed
- ICD-10 codes for 2018 now available on Australian and NZ records
- ICD-10 codes for 2016 and 2017 Australian cases updated with latest versions
- BDM data for Indigenous status and place of birth now available for 2018 Australian records.
System update - External codes and geocoding update - 1 July 2020 (PDF, 591.49 KB) (External link)
22 April 2020 - Western Australian case numbers
A format change was applied to the local case numbers for all Western Australian cases within the NCIS. The format for WA local case numbers is now sequence/year/location.
Users can access a WA local case number mapping file from the Help screen on the NCIS interface to obtain the new local case numbers for existing cases of interest.
23 February 2020 - Enhanced functionality
This update involved enhancing the functions for finding the most applicable codes, updating the codeset and linking cases.
New functionality includes:
- update of the NCIS codeset
- expanded codeset searching options
- new validation rules
- linking multiple case records for the same deceased.
2019 updates
6 November 2019 - Indigenous and birthplace data
This upgrade involved improving data about the Indigenous identification and birthplace of the deceased.
Data sourced from the Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) registries around Australia has been integrated into the NCIS to supplement the coronial information about Indigenous origin and country of birth.
15 October 2019 - Geocoding and drug data display
This upgrade involved enhancing the presentation of geocoded and drug data.
New functionality allows users to:
- identify if the geocoding process has been unsuccessful for a particular address
- return Drug class and Drug category fields from a query design search
- search the free text field Other pharmaceutical substances for human use.