Abstract
The Integrated Care System NI (ICS NI) is the new commissioning framework being developed in Northern Ireland which aims to improve the health and well-being of our population. Incorporated within this are Area Integrated Partnership Boards (AIPBs) - locality-based collaborative partnerships with members from a variety of backgrounds, that are designed to deliver improved health and social care outcomes and reduce health inequalities for their local population areas.
As part of the Southern Trust Area test AIPB, Public Health Agency (PHA), in collaboration with the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG), were tasked with developing a population profile that would provide AIPB members with information about the health needs of their local population.
This evidence was required rapidly and would be needed for all AIPB areas as ICS NI is launched. Therefore, we developed an interactive dashboard that would be easily accessible and contain intelligence for all of Northern Ireland, with the aim of becoming operational for all five AIPBs.
We worked with colleagues within PHA and SPPG to identify a range of up-to-date and reliable sources of data with relevant indicators for population health, then designing the dashboard with our data scientist colleagues.
We presented the dashboard to AIPB members, engaged in discussions on their views and provided them access to explore the dashboard themselves and sought feedback through an online form.
The dashboard and additional data relating to health inequalities provided during the pilot helped the test Southern AIPB to identify areas of focus for their initial action plan.
The dashboard has taken a ‘life-course’ approach, hosting information on a range of indicators beginning with early years (‘starting well’) through to later years (‘ageing well’). Intelligence has been gathered from a variety of sources including Northern Ireland Census 2021, Health Survey Northern Ireland and bespoke analysis of hospital admission data in Northern Ireland.
Bringing together timely data from various sources into an interactive tool helps to make information accessible and interpretable to this diverse audience and supports their decision-making.
With the wealth of information available, including data from other sectors such as education, there are challenges relating to not over-whelming members with information, keeping sources up-to-date and providing data that is relevant to the locality level to maximise the usefulness and interpretability to members. The determinants of health are broader than acute care statistics, so accessing data from primary care will also be essential to support decision-making.
Initially the primary aim of this project was to help the test Southern AIPB meet their objectives and so next steps would be to review how this product can be developed further, both as a resource for ICS and other AIPBs but also as a product which could serve PHA’s information needs as well as external stakeholders and collaborators. As we develop the product further we envisage this will become an up-to-date repository of health data and intelligence on the wider determinants of health and health inequalities.