The platform enhances Primary Health Networks’ (PHNs) capabilities to support the primary health care system in planning services, understanding the gaps and directing funding to areas of need.
This collaborative development of Primary Health Insights provides PHNs with the opportunity to increase their data analytics capabilities, promote efficiencies, reduce duplication and make cost savings. It will also improve PHNs privacy protection, governance capabilities, data security, cyber protection and reduce risk.
Designed for security and access control
Built on the cloud-based Azure platform, and making extensive use of the native services available within that environment, Primary Health Insights is designed to provide both collective and individual PHN data privacy and security.
Inside the platform, each PHNs’ lockbox is a separate and additionally secured part of the internal network that is only accessible to designated staff from that PHN.
Data sets stored by the PHN inside their lockbox are required to have had a Privacy Impact Assessment completed, to determine the appropriate level of access and use, including which PHN staff should have access.
A separate ‘common’ lockbox stores and manages common and publicly available datasets that can be read by all PHNs. Collectively, the entire environment is secured behind a next generation firewall and direct peered, encrypted network connections.
Facilitating collaborative learning
Designed to foster and enhance collaboration among PHNs, the Primary Health Insights environment also provides tools and forums to enable staff from multiple PHNs to communicate, share ideas and work together on common projects. Supported by the PHN Cooperative’s National Data Governance Framework and effective role-based security, PHNs can safely and confidently collaborate on data and analytics work whenever it is both appropriate and permissible to do so.
Communities of Practice (CoPs) and small working groups operate in a number of areas. Participation in these forums is voluntary. Working groups may be initiated by a PHN seeking to work collaboratively with their peers or centrally by the Primary Health Insights team to address a specific issue or enhancement.
Advanced analytics capabilities for PHNs
Primary Health Insights provides PHNs with access to scalable tools that allow data processing, analytics and visualisation to occur inside their secured Primary Health Insights data environment.
The platform is continually being enhanced. The use of scalable, pay-as-you-go services (such as Synapse Analytics, Machine Learning and Databricks) will enable PHNs to complete very large processing and analytics tasks more quickly, easily, and more cost effectively than ever before.
Primary Health Insights is designed to support the effectiveness of PHN data and analytics staff. Through both peer support and centrally provided training and documentation, Primary Health Insights aims to drive continuous development of the analytics capabilities of PHNs.
Governance of Primary Health Insights
Primary Health Insights is operated by WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) under contract as the lead PHN until July 2025. WAPHA’s function as system operator remains separate from its participation as a PHN and is overseen by the Primary Health Insights Steering Committee drawn from CEO-level platform members and partners operating under Terms of Reference set by the Management Committee of the Unincorporated Joint Venture.
The PHN Cooperative’s National Data Governance Framework, maintained by the National Data Governance Committee, describes the data governance arrangements, structure and support mechanisms in place to ensure security, privacy and effective and consistent management of the data on Primary Health Insights.
The data held within the platform is accessible only to designated staff and will not be made available for commercial purposes.