IN DEPTH
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER PEARCE Director of Research, Outcome Health
Creating patient-centred data The new health frontier.
A meme in the modern world is that ‘data is the
that provides data analytics to multiple Primary
new oil’, and indeed, this is true particularly in
Health Networks in Victoria and New South Wales
health. The increasing digitisation of healthcare
and their constituent general practices, covering
and its data is both opening up possibilities and
about 25% of the Australian population.
exposing weaknesses in the current system. A particular weakness is the jurisdictional and
The POpulation Level Analysis and Reporting (POLAR) program uses an integrated governance
organisational limitations to sharing data. This is
framework to make the GP data available and
no longer acceptable. We have a moral imperative
useful for multiple purposes.1 Moving beyond the
to ensure that data follow the patient in various
concept of ‘secondary use of data’, it understands
forms. This article outlines our organisation’s
that all uses of data are valid, across the multiple
approach.
levels of use cases, namely: patient identification
The Outcome Health data journey
(used for linkage); patient care; clinical governance
Outcome Health started out as a division of general practice, and 15 years ago developed a process for extracting and processing data for traditional quality assurance (QA) activities at the practice level. From there the program has developed and expanded. Outcome Health is now a not-for-profit
(of which QA activities are a part); population health; research; and administrative/business purposes. So, for example, a diagnosis of diabetes in a patient, and concomitant tests and medications are recorded in the GP system attached to patient identifiers and used by the GP for the care of The Health Advocate • AUGUST 2019
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