InstantAtlas Public Health Statistics - Case Study
Wales Centre for Health publishes “EuroHealthAtlas” online with InstantAtlas
EuroHealthAtlas allows the comparison of mortality rates in Wales and Ireland with some 300 regions across Europe. Somewhat ‘dense’ public health data from EUROSTAT and other sources is published via InstantAtlas as highly interactive graphics for easy visual comparisons, recognition of patterns and trends.
The Wales Centre for Health (WCfH) is a Welsh Assembly Government Sponsored Body. Its stated vision is to “add value to the work of every organisation with a role to play in health, so that the sum of their contribution to the health and wellbeing of Wales is greater than their individual efforts”.
Comparative health atlas
WCfH together with the Ireland and Northern Ireland’s Population Health Observatory (INIsPHO), have developed EuropeanHealthAtlas. An online resource, the objective is to strengthen decision making for health in Wales and Ireland by promoting greater awareness and use of comparative European health-related data and in particular mortality rates for cancers, circulatory disease, accidents and suicides.
The data on the site is obtained from a number of different sources including EUROSTAT, the Office for National Statistics, Health Solutions Wales, the Central Statistics Office in Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.
“The source data we collated and wanted to provide is actually somewhat dense,” said Neil Riley, head of health information intelligence at WCfH. “We needed a way to present it online graphically to provide easy accessibility and comparative analysis for decision makers, policy advisers and the public.”
InstantAtlas
InstantAtlas, a software tool from GeoWise enabling the online graphical presentation of geographic data, was very much the tool of choice for the EuroHealthAtlas. “InstantAtlas is used widely by public health observatories,” said Riley. “We had seen it before and knew it was exactly what we needed.”
Riley found the interactive graphical atlas features of InstantAtlas ideal for presenting data from multiple government regions.
“By using InstantAtlas as the presentation tool, EuroHealthAtlas empowers the user to profile and browse statistics easily via a colourful map to view a variety of health indicators across multiple geographies and time spans,” said Riley. “It’s easy to make regional comparisons and spot trends over time.”
Peer approval
EuroHealthAtlas presents mortality data on some 300 regions, looking at five causes of death, over a seven-year period for 3 sexes (male, female and both together). Thus in all, some 31,500 different InstantAtlas generated EuroHealthAtlas profiles are currently available, and growing.
Prior to launch, the WCfH presented EuroHealthAtlas at the European Health Indicators Conference in Prague. “The conference we presented to was impressed by our ability to transform complex, high volume multi-regional data into easily comprehensible graphics,” said Riley.
“Parties interested in the public health areas of EUROSTAT, will no longer need a statistics degree to interpret the data.”
Easy publishing
Processing large volumes of health data for graphical presentation could be a laborious task to perform manually. A good tool can cut the time needed to create and publish information. In just one month, March 2007, WCfH started using InstantAtlas, loaded the data and first presented EuroHealthAtlas live online. An official launch was set for July.
“Following a short learning-curve, we found it easy to load data into InstantAtlas and to define, create and publish graphical atlases,” said Riley. “The GeoWise support team were very helpful when we wanted to do something slightly out of the ordinary with complex data sets.”
Looking ahead
“Our goal is to see public health in Wales and Ireland, especially pre-mature mortality rates, improve through communicating to health policy decision makers clear comparisons with the rest of Europe,” said Riley. “Better understanding of the complex health issues affecting Wales and Ireland will help deliver a better focus of public health resources.”
“In terms of our use of InstantAtlas, it’s early days for us, but we are very positive and look forward to using the tool more extensively in our health improvement objectives in the future.”
Link to Wales Centre for Health Website
Note: Diabetes UK chose InstantAtlas Data Server as it needed to manage relatively large volumes of indicators in a central data repository and sought robust processes for loading and sharing data.
Case Study Keywords - public health statistics, health data, public health information, health indicators, health policy, interactive graphical atlas, profiles, interactive flash GIS maps, public health statistics, health performance profiling template, social health analysis tools
Read other Public Health Case Study - Sheffield PCT - "Sheffield PCT gets the message across with InstantAtlas"