Data-Driven Healthcare Improvement is Monash Partners number one strategic priority. We have created a Data Platform, leveraging the strength in clinical registries across our Partnership and Monash University’s Health Data Platform. The purpose of our Data Platform is to ‘improve health outcomes across our community, through data-driven innovation and care’.
Healthcare data enables clinicians, researchers, policy makers and the community to make informed decisions that improve healthcare and outcomes at both the individual and population level. Current barriers to the use of health data include limited data literacy by health professionals; ad hoc data capture; and poor data quality, integration and linkage, with clinicians unable to access routinely collected data to improve clinical care.
Through the Alliance of NHMRC-accredited Advanced Health Research Translation Centres and Centres for Innovation in Regional Health (Australian Health Research Alliance, AHRA) we are co-leading a national system-level initiative to collaborate, engage stakeholders, and create a community of practice to identify and address priorities in data-driven healthcare improvement. This approach offers progress on previously intractable problems though large-scale collaboration, transcending silos and barriers to progress. National priorities, established through a formal evidence-based process, include:
- To create health data research hubs to stimulate partnerships across academic, clinician and industry stakeholders.
- Building workforce capacity in data use for healthcare improvement through training.
- To integrate large-scale data sets to undertake research and quality improvement across the primary care, acute and sub-acute continuum.
Key initiatives of our Data Platform include progressing national data priority areas; developing a model for learning health system data hubs; workforce development; and integration of large data sets for research and quality improvement. Principles to enable the sharing of health data across our Partners are under review and fifteen PhD candidates are undertaking health service identified and prioritised data projects.
Learning health system data hubs
Learning Health System Data Hubs represent a new and innovative approach to the use of data to improve patient outcomes. Typically, a hub comprises an integrated team of frontline clinicians, researchers, informaticians and community members, embedded in healthcare. Data from clinical encounters and other sources is analysed to generate new knowledge to continuously inform and improve health decision making and practice.
During 2019 we have progressed the development of a Monash Partners model for learning health system data hubs with over 60 academics, policy makers, consumers and clinicians participating in a co-design workshop. A systematic review and qualitative interviews with key stakeholders across Australia and internationally have informed our approach. To learn more about our data platform and its activities please contact Alison Johnson.
We have extensive data-related resources available, HERE.
