Streamlining and Organizing data is vital in the healthcare sector as much as it is for many other sectors. It helps to support the growth of the healthcare industry. A health data platform can immensely help achieve this task and align the health industry with other major industries in the country.

In such a context, the government of New Zealand is continuously working on taking measures to implement such a health data platform to unify health data and streamline the entire healthcare process in the country.

Read on to learn more about the New Zealand National Health Data Platform, including why it matters so much to the country’s government and health department.

A single national platform for health data access in New Zealand

Accenture is working towards delivering New Zealand’s national health data platform, which seeks to consolidate data help from more than 28 health system entities. This development process of one sole system to unify and access health data across the country aims at realigning and merging health data essential for various analysis and decision-making tasks.

Te Whatu Ora sought out on interested solutions providers that can create a “consistent system of data capture and intelligence and analysis procedures of that data”. This entire picture forms an expanded federated data platform for health data access in NZ.

Te Whatu Ora is a public health organization established on 1 July 2022 by the NZ government to replace the nation’s 20 DHBs (district health boards). It works alongside two other public health agencies in New Zealand: the Public Health Agency and Te Aka Whai Ora, which is the M?ori Health Authority. All these organizations are assigned the task of managing the provision of healthcare services in the country.

Why it matters?

At present, New Zealand doesn’t have a proper mechanism to streamline all health-related data across the country. Data vary in degree of quality, maturity, and completeness across existing data environments across the country’s healthcare landscape. Some data remain unstructured and difficult to access, which makes the system and process even less reliable.

This is why the National Data Platform (NDP) aimed at making the respective health entities to be able to manage their own health information and share it with the relevant parties for analytics and reporting purposes. Apart from the Te Whatu Ora, M?ori Health Authority, and Public Health Agency, this system has the potential to scale to several other entities which include the following:

Ministry of Disabled People

Primary and community providers

Cancer Control Agency

Non-profit organizations

Here are the benefits that you can look forward to due to the roll-out of the NDP:

Expedite access to health data to enable simple and secure connectivity to the latest analytics tool.

Reduce costs associated with maintaining, analyzing, and reporting health data across the country.

Reduce duplication of health data.

Improved understanding of patient journeys.

Identify and resolve pressure points.

In a larger context

NDP was established as a vital enabler in the context of the national health system reforms. It plays a crucial role within a suite of related tasks already undertaken regarding concerns over data standards, data governance, access management, and identity.

According to Te Whatu Ora, they are planning to create a similar unified platform for clinicians, health providers, and other related people.

The country’s government has invested close to a billion New Zealand dollars (NZD) in the past two years, just to develop the data in the health systems nationwide and the capabilities of its digital infrastructure. Here’s the breakdown of the budgets involved:

385 million NZD in Budget 2021

320 million NZD in Budget 2022

The above budgets include the costs involved in rectifying legacy system issues and introducing innovative technological capabilities.

On the record

This initiative is simply the start of a multi-year adaptation, and the relevant organizations are looking forward to connecting different data environments into a single nationally consistent information center. This data will be secured and prepared for reporting and analysis so that the relevant agencies can trace the performance of the health system and any enhancements that are required.

National Data Platform to unify and simplify data environments

According to Te Whatu Ora, the core of this data platform consists of an integrated technology products suite with center national information assets organized into a conformed and integrated data model.

At its fringe will be self-governing areas where Te Whatu Ora, it various regions, Te Aka Whai Ora, and other related organizations get to manage their own health-related information, accompanied by information sharing to and from the central data model.

Te Whatu Ora released a call for ROI (Registrations of Interest), which states the data platform will pave the way for data storage, ingestion, and transformation with links to core business intelligence modules.

The initial requirement was to design a suite of tools that enable connectivity to an array of other tools related to AI, data science, and BI along with district data environments already available. It allows for simple data sharing, analyzing, and reporting as districts.

The contract with the selected solutions provider is planned to be for one to two years initially, while extensions may take place based on how things progress.

Questions over M?ori data rights

The new data platform does not state M?ori data rights. It’s vital to address M?ori interests and rights related to health data management. It will ensure that the NDP makes M?ori data sovereignty a crucial element to design and implementation. The framework is a good example of putting individuals in control of their health data.

There are still a few scenarios to be mapped related to who holds M?ori data, where it is, and for what use it is held.

Health information management in New Zealand

Until the ‘90s, health data at a national level was provided and utilized by the Department of Health, regional health boards, and private hospitals. A health information systems review identified significant issues in health data collection through this method. There was a definite lack of quality standards, issues with collected data, and overlapping collection points in these.

A national health information strategy was established in 1991, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. This framework sought solutions to the above issues.

NZ health information service

The National Health Information Service (NHIS) is the responsible body for managing health-related data in NZ. The strategy provides timely, relevant, and accurate information while streamlining a lot of the activities and processes currently in place in this service as a business.

The NHIS is a group within the health ministry and is responsible for the collection and distribution of health-related data. The NHIS was established in 1993 with the primary objective of having reliable and accessible data in a timely manner throughout the healthcare industry. It was assigned with all angles of health information management, including gathering, processing, maintaining, and distributing health sector-related statistics for the continual development of health information systems.

The national health register

There are three national databases involved in developing the national health register, which include the following:

The National Health Index (NHI): It is a population-based register that identifies all healthcare users or ‘patients’ in NZ.

Medical Warnings System (MWS): The MWS is responsible for ‘warning’ health providers of the existence of identified risk factors that could have an impact on clinical decisions about each patient.

National Minimum Data Set (NMDS): The NMDS is a group of health information required at a national level to form policies, and monitor and evaluate performance.

These are responsible for incorporating strict policies to safeguard the data they hold from unauthorized access and misuse.

Other health information management initiatives

The primary function of the New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS) is to manage health-related data for the Ministry of Health. NZHIS also offers is services in the open market at a commercial level. Projects are constantly in place to facilitate the health intranet and to identify its benefits and use.

Privacy and confidentiality issues and concerns

Privacy and confidentiality concerns are of utmost importance in health information and related services. There should be a high level of trust and acceptance among people that the data collected through these means will be used in the correct manner. Misuse is strictly prohibited and should be monitored and always reviewed.

One way to do this is through data matching, which can be used to identify individuals defrauding the health system by matching data from other entities such as accident compensation and social welfare, and Inland Revenue Department.

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