Te Waipounamu PHOs join forces on data

NEWS – eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Te Waipounamu – South Island Primary Health Organisations (PHOs) have created a regional view of primary care data to help address healthcare disparities and enhance service delivery.

The unified data platform is a collaboration between the region’s eight PHOs, using DataCraft Analytics.

Damon Campbell, chief operating officer at WellSouth, says the proof of concept went live about seven months ago by aggregating registers from all the PHOs, representing an enrolled population of 1.1 million.

They established governance groups, including membership from the region’s two Iwi Māori Partnership Boards, to ensure representation and input from all stakeholders.

He says it is important to have Primary Care Data Sovereignty around data and what that looks like.

“This is not just about giving data to consumers or other stakeholders, it is about telling the story and the utility about what is happening in primary care,” Campbell explains.

By aggregating data at a regional level, the PHOs aim to identify gaps in activities like immunisation coverage and address them more effectively.

"For example, we can see that higher deprivation levels correlate with higher rates of vaccination decline," Campbell says.

"This insight allows us to focus our efforts on communities with greater needs and develop strategies to overcome barriers to vaccination."\\

Read more about this, HERE.