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Western Australia Epidemiology reporting tools review and recommendations

The Challenge

The Epidemiology Directorate within Department of Health Western Australia (DoHWA) developed several reporting tools over time to support both internal and external clients. However, gaps and overlaps in functionality and output were identified. The primary tool, HealthTracks Reporting, was based on outdated code and was soon to be unsupported due to operating system upgrades.

FrontierSI conducted a two-stage project with the DoHWA Epidemiology Directorate and key stakeholders to evaluate the HealthTracks Reporting system and other Epidemiology reporting tools. The objective was to identify the optimal path forward for development of reporting tools, to meet user needs and ensure the Directorate’s automated reporting functions are future proofed.

Partners

The project client was the Epidemiology Directorate within the Department of Health Western Australia (DoHWA) and the delivery partner for Stage 1 was NGIS.

The Solution 

For the delivery of Stage 1, FrontierSI led the project with Business Analysis support from NGIS, while Stage 2 development of the business case and proof of concept was delivered by FrontierSI.

1. Stage 1 was broken into three tasks:
   1. Evaluation of current Epidemiology reporting tools and systems – Review of the current Epidemiology Directorate reporting tool landscape involving demonstration of tools by Epidemiology staff, direct system access to tools, and review of supporting documentation.
   2. Stakeholder Engagement – Gathering high-level stakeholder requirements and user feedback through online surveys and a series of face-to-face workshops.
   3. Options Analysis Review and Recommendations – Based on tasks a and b, options were proposed and assessed for each tool including risks, pros and cons. Recommendations and high-level roadmaps were provided to optimise current investments, maximise stakeholder value, and modernise tools.
2. Stage 2 consisted of two tasks:
   1. As the key HealthTracks Reporting API recommendation from Stage 1 required a separate presentation layer for visualisation of report outputs, part one of Stage 2 was to run a proof-of-concept to test the feasibility of this.
   2. Produced a business case for funding to implement the recommendations adopted from Stage 1, with the business case costed to include detailed requirements to support the procurement process and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) approval.

Impact

The business case is being used by the Epidemiology Directorate for a large funding request to the Department of Health to improve Epidemiology reporting tools and services. Strategic upgrade and consolidation of reporting tools and databases will reduce maintenance, increase self-service capability for end users, and enable the Epidemiology team to focus on providing their valuable services including complex data interpretation.

Contact

To learn more, please contact us at  contact@frontiersi.com.au.