2007 APHEO Conference

JoAnn Heale (joann.heale@ontario.ca)

Health Data & Decision Support Unit, MOHLTC

intelliHEALTH ONTARIO:The NEW and IMPROVED Access to the PHPDB*

*Provincial Health Planning Database

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Recommendations from PHPDB User Survey

• Assist external PHPDB users to overcome VPN problems

• Develop additional functionality and products to cater to users with different levels of expertise and needs

• Improve the format of the PHPDB code tables to make them more easily accessible

• Modify the website to make it more user-friendly and up-to-date

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Requirements for Future PHPDB Access

• Maintain current Hummingbird BI functionality

• Customize access to datasets and/or data fields

• Assure security/privacy guidelines are met

• Provide ‘thin client’ access to the PHPDB

• Add enhanced reporting functionality

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Web-based Access – no VPN required!

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Web link – restricted access

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Directory of Information Maps (Table[s])

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Maintain Functionality of Old Access

Red Table in PHPDB

Red + Grey Tables in PHPDB

• All tables and almost all data items (attributes) from the PHPDB are available in WRS• Example: Inpatient Discharge IMs

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Meet Privacy/Confidentiality Guidelines

• No personal identifiers• Chart number• Birth Date• Health number

• Unique Record Keys Used as Measures Only• E.g. CIHI Key is not available as a data item but is used as the

measure # inpatient discharges • E.g. Encrypted HN is not available as a data item but is used as

the measure # patients (HN)

9Enhanced functionality for all levels of user…

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11Enhanced Functionality – Measures Are Created for Users

What the User Sees in WRS:

D = Distinct MeasureHN = patient with health number

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How the Measures were Calculated

• # Ext Causes• Count on hlth_serv_type field (always IP) from External Cause table• There can be multiple (or no) external causes per discharge

• # Ext C Dschg (D)• Count distinct on cihi_key from External Cause table• Distinct measures cannot be totaled across cells and can only be

used in list reports

• # Dschg (D)• Count distinct on cihi_key from Inpatient Discharge (red) table• Requires outer join between IP Discharge & External Cause

• # Pts with Ext C (D-HN)• Count distinct on identification_num (HN) from External Cause table –

where identification_cd = ‘H’

Note: WRS allows multiple distinct measures in one report (list only) – Hummingbird allowed only one per query

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Enhanced functionality – no need to link to code tables…

14Enhanced functionality – distinct measures can only be used in lists – no totals

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Enhanced functionality – formatted crosstab reports

All measures in all information maps

have been tested (by Ian Taylor) against the PHPDB

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New Products

• Summary Information Maps• Based on cubes built from 6-7 most-frequently queried dimensions• Very fast query time, e.g. medical services query takes seconds-minutes• Drill down or expand dimensions• Standard reports built from each Summary IM

• Special Reports• SAS datasets created to join record level and aggregate datasets• Available for pilot group – live birth rates, death rates, death rankings by

leading cause• In creating rates datasets, some records have to be excluded (e.g.,

unknown age, sex, public health unit)

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Example of Summary Information Map

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Death Rates Report

Leading Causes of Death Report

Example of Special Reports Developed

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Death Rates Report: Nine Sections

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Sample Report View for Death Rates Report

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User Can Select and View Pages

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Most Report Sections Include Graphs

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You can quickly sort, e.g. by death rate

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… or by number of deaths

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You can filter on any data item, e.g. age group

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… and make comparisons between PHUs

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Footers include detailed information on source data

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Leading Cause of Death Report: Six Sections

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Sample: Lead Cause Rank Under 20 Yr

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User can select from prompted items

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User can refine report to explore other issues

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User can sort/rank report on any data item

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Other Features of Reporting Tool(available for users of the Special Reports)

• Customize for agency’s needs and save to ‘My Folders’• Add ‘conditional highlighting’ to any report

• E.g., any cell with fewer than 5 displays as ‘NR’

• Create additional custom measures• E.g., Deaths < 20 Yr, Rank < 20 Yr in Leading Cause of Death

Report

• Rank and display any data item, • E.g. display leading causes of death that account for 75% of all

deaths

• Filter any data item• Use available filters or create custom filters

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Next Steps

• Pilot group (20 users) trained week of Oct. 22 2007

• PHPDB Advisory Group reinstated

• Pilot group tests Web Report Studio for one month

• Pilot group & Advisory Group provide feedback to development team

• Product revisions in December-January 2008

• Roll-out to existing users February-April 2008

• Hummingbird BI phased out to coincide with roll-out

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Questions?

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User-friendly graphing options

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User friendly prompt lists have been created

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Sample output- can edit report to improve formatting

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Can change column widths for formatting

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Can rank – top xx number or xx %