How Primary Health Insights works
How does Primary Health Insights Work?
PHNs
Primary Health Networks (PHNs) collect and hold data from general practices and commissioned primary healthcare service providers in accordance with appropriate Contracts and Data Sharing Agreements. They analyse this information to identify and help address gaps in healthcare service delivery, and to improve healthcare outcomes.
PHNs participate voluntarily in Primary Health Insights and choose the data sets they store on the platform.
Primary Health Insights
Primary Health Insights holds data from multiple PHNs. Each PHN’s data area, called a ‘lockbox’, is separate, individually secured and subject to the same high level of access control and privacy safeguards as the platform. PHNs control access to their lockbox and retain custodianship of their data. Primary Health Insights’ administrators cannot see PHNs’ data in lockboxes.
PHNs’ data analysts have the ability to combine common data sets (such as census data) with data secured in their lockboxes and, using advanced analytics, generate new insights into population health. This enables PHNs to work with individual general practices to improve their understanding of their community’s health and healthcare needs.
Common Data Sets
Collaboration Zones
PHNs may choose to work together to create new data sets to drive greater insight into population health and healthcare needs by combining similarly specified data sets from their local patient populations. This process of combining patient data will take place within ‘collaboration zones’ and will be subject to strict governance controls. These areas of the platform are also individually secured, governed and protected within Primary Health Insights. Access to this data is restricted to the PHNs participating in the collaboration zone.
PHNs have access to a range of analytical and reporting tools hosted in Primary Health Insights, and use these to report data and insights to general practices and commissioned healthcare service providers.