The more you know - using data to deliver better health services

The Ventures data services team is a highly skilled group of data experts who support Pinnacle and the practice network to better understand our performance and meet our district health board and Ministry of Health reporting requirements.  

Much of this work happens quietly, behind the scenes, but delivers enormous value for the network.  

Recent projects have focused on data sharing and completing phase 1 of a data lake which will automate access to data sources and dramatically improve our ability to process and query that data. 

Better understanding the wealth of data we hold presents us with new opportunities to gain insights, target specific patient groups and ultimately deliver better health care.    

Over the next few weeks a range of data developments designed for practices will be coming online, including new Power BI dashboards, MMR status lists and reporting on flu vaccine eligibility for under 65s.  

A range of new diagnosis groups and subcategories will be added to the network performance dashboard in Power BI over the next few weeks. These new groups and subgroups will allow us to look at data, for example, only for Type 1 diabetics or people with bowel cancer.  

New groups available for analysis now include: neuromuscular, central nervous system disorders, pregnancy, metabolic disease, transplant recipient, and splenectomy – with more coming soon. 

Phase 1 of a new clinical dashboard is soon to be released to practices, featuring a range of detailed clinical metrics for diabetes, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD): 

• case finding 
• triple therapy 
• CVD and CKD risk management 
• prescribing.  

This is very targeted and clinically useful information that is difficult to gain access to by other means, so we encourage you to use Power BI and become familiar with it.  

If your practice doesn’t have access to Power BI, please contact practice development to get it set up.  

Only children born from 2005 onwards are on the national immunisation register, which has made it challenging to confirm the immunisation status of 15-30 year olds – many of whom weren’t fully immunised as children.  

This week practices will be sent MMR status lists for 15-30 year olds, using data aggregated from a number of sources to provide our best understanding of their immunisation status. This will make it easier to identify people who may not be fully immunised. 

A big piece of work is underway to report on free flu vaccine eligibility for under 65s, which has complex eligibility criteria. We are aiming to provide practices with lists of patients who meet the eligibility criteria in time for the start of the 2021 flu vaccine programme in mid-April.