PHO: Empowering public health professionals to ask questions using current reportable infectious disease information CPHA conference, May 27, 2014 Brenda Lee, Michelle Policarpio, Michael Whelan and Ruth Sanderson Public Health Ontario

PublicHealthOntario.ca Outline Concept Reportable infectious disease data Technology Process Pilot test Product Implications Future Directions 2

PublicHealthOntario.ca Public Health Ontario Public Health Ontario (PHO) is a Crown corporation dedicated to protecting and promoting the health of all Ontarians and reducing inequities in health Mandated to provide scientific and technical advice and support to clients working in government, public health, health care, and related sectors Responsible for the surveillance of reportable infectious disease in the province 3

PublicHealthOntario.ca The concept Develop a tool for use by Ontario’s public health sector to access and independently explore reportable disease data with the following attributes: Timely Flexible Straightforward user interface Easily maintained with minimal need for IT support 4

PublicHealthOntario.ca Reportable infectious disease data collection and extraction Integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS) Reportable disease data in Ontario are reported by public health units (PHUs) to the province via iPHIS As specified under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, R.R.O. 1990, Regulation 569 Cognos 10 Business intelligence tool used by PHUs to extract data from iPHIS Allows approved public health users to extract data from most fields in iPHIS Specialized knowledge of the reporting tool is required PHUs can only extract their own data 5

PublicHealthOntario.ca The software PowerPivot Software Free add-in for Excel 2010 Enables users to explore data on the fly Features Accommodates very large data sets (i.e., no limitations on rows) Can combine data from different sources (i.e., relationships can be defined to link different datasets) Can create visually appealing visuals (e.g., charts, tables) Allows data to be viewed in different ways Compatible with SharePoint 6

PublicHealthOntario.ca The process 7 Includes: data extraction (iPHIS and intelliHEALTH), creation of custom tables, and data cleaning Based on: PHU needs, iPHIS data requests, surveillance reports Process: define structure and slicers, apply design format

PublicHealthOntario.ca Pilot test 8 Testers Eight Ontario public health units Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Internal Public Health Ontario (PHO) staff Activities Completed scenarios to test report functionality Participated in ‘load test’ to determine impact of multiple users on the system Feedback User-friendly and relevant for exploring reportable disease data in Ontario Adjust report layout for ease of use

PublicHealthOntario.ca The product 9 PHO A user-friendly tool for interactive data exploration and drill-down analysis Accessible to approved public health professionals internal PHO users external health unit users Data includes information on 68 reportable diseases Data are presented in dynamic chart and table format Data are refreshed weekly

PublicHealthOntario.ca The product 10

PublicHealthOntario.ca The product 11

PublicHealthOntario.ca The product 12

PublicHealthOntario.ca 13 Available slicers Data notes and caveats Output data table Output graph Selected slicers

PublicHealthOntario.ca Implications Easy and timely access to basic reportable disease data for approved Ontario users from public health sector Allows users to easily make comparisons of infectious disease trends with between PHUs and the province Fewer requests to the province for basic data Has the potential to build public health capacity and productivity 14

PublicHealthOntario.ca Build Ontario user base Refine existing reports and develop additional reports based on recommendations from users Produce new models or enhanced models that incorporate different data sources Explore approaches to incorporate other compatible software to display data from PowerPivot (e.g., PowerView) 15 Future Directions

PublicHealthOntario.ca Acknowledgements Thanks to our colleagues at PHO who have worked on and supported this project: 16 Tina Badiani Stephen Beath Jeremy Herring Brenda Mitchell Surinder Mohan George Pasut Jason Percival Ruth Sanderson Rachel Savage Michael Whelan

Questions? Contact us at: 17