Enabling Visualisation of our COVID-19 Data

By Forid Alom, Head of Improvement Analytics

Is data the new oil? A common analogy we hear, especially within Health Care. Whether this is true or not, there is no doubt data, in particular data visualisation, is crucial to decision making. Combine this improvement methodology and you’ve got yourself a powerful system.

Throughout the trust, we are becoming familiar with Microsoft Teams, an app which is part of the Microsoft Office 365 package. Another great application we have been testing for the past few months is Power BI, a business intelligence platform that brings a whole host of data visualisation capability that was not possible before. During the past year we have been focusing on developing integrated reporting systems for all services within the Trust, providing a single point of entry for all things data.

The Covid-19 pandemic required us to rapidly utilise Power Bi to visualise our Covid-19 data. We worked closely with ‘Infection, Prevention and Control’, ‘DATIX’, ‘People and Culture’ and the ‘Psychological support teams’ to set up interim data tracking systems utilising SharePoint. These data sets were then drawn into a Microsoft Power BI dashboard (Figure 1.) to give a quick one-page overview of our daily position. We are now able to interact with qualitative and quantitative data, through a series of static and dynamic visuals including SPC (Statistical Process Control) charts.

The dashboard focuses on the safety of our service users and the support structures in place for our staff. This technology allows us to view reports through all types of devices and most importantly, remotely through an internet browser or mobile app. The dashboard also allows for self service so you can interrogate the data and present it in the way you need..

This is a big step forward in the Trusts digital strategy, automating the data visualisation element so we can focus on what is most important, interpreting what the data is telling us and taking the appropriate action. For you it means you won’t have to manually create SPC charts and word clouds, Power bi will do it for you.

This is a small snippet of what is to come in the near future in terms of data visualisation within ELFT.

Watch this space!