Linked datasets monitor equity performance in Auckland region

eHealthNews.nz: AI & Analytics

Linked datasets monitor equity performance in Auckland region

Monday, 10 May 2021

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NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Wellbeing Smoking and Alcohol ProCare has linked its vast amount of general practice data to national data sets to identify gaps in equity in the Auckland population and monitor GP’s performance on improving these.

The primary health organisation has also developed its own Population Health Strategy 2019 - 2024.

Clinical director Allan Moffit says data tools can be used to prioritise what the PHO does and ensure its work is targeted to make a difference.

The PHO has primary care data on nearly half the Auckland population and has linked this to national and national data sets, as well as NIR and NCSR. This gives a truly comprehensive view of the population, Moffit explains.

ProCare has created a website with dashboards for GPs showing how their practice is performing across a range of areas and allowing them to drill down into their own practice data.

They can view the data according to ethnicity as well as deprivation and “see where the gaps are”, Moffit says.

The PHO is using Tableau to display dynamic data, which is updated weekly, monthly, or in some cases annually. It hopes to move to daily or real-time data by the end of next year.

Clinical Director Allan Moffit “It's a continuous journey of improvement,” Moffit says.

Practices each submit annual plans to the PHO and have always had national targets they need to achieve. Based on its Auckland data and population strategy, ProCare has also asked them to choose one of five areas to focus on, with a particular emphasis on equity.

These five areas cover; healthy start to life (0-4 years); Engaged youth; improved wellbeing and preventative care; longer term conditions; and health of older people.

Groups of practices working on the same goal work in quality improvement collaboratives to share ideas about how to improve and measure success. The biggest collaborative has 36 practice members and meetings are held via Zoom.

Each goal has a series of tracked indicators that show the baseline for the network and how the practice compares over time.

The PHO has worked hard on standardising coding and improving the quality of practice data and accuracy is now “pretty good”, Moffit says.

Practices are benchmarked against the average for the PHO and similar practices, based on demographics, so they can monitor their performance.

“There's not much point comparing a practice in Otara with a practice in Remuera, in terms of clinical outcomes, so we've invented about seven different categories of practices to give them more a granular view of practices with a similar population makeup,” he says.

“This enables a practice to more easily see how their patient outcomes are tracking and if their interventions are working.

“Our view is that for every practice that succeeds in closing that gap for Maori and Pacific over a year, that collectively will add up to a huge improvement in the population.”

Moffit says the disruption caused by Covid-19 means the PHO has not seen the improvements it had hoped to over the past year, but simple things like ensuring those who have had heart attacks are on triple therapy could save around 500 lives in five years.

“It's a significant sort of impact that we can have,” he says.