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How BI is Changing the Way Health Data is Viewed by the Health Ministry and the Public
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Data-as-a-Service
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
The Norwegian Directorate of Health was facing challenges in providing health data to the public in an accessible and understandable format. The data was previously served via static PDF files and reports with limited self-service capabilities, mostly showing data in tables. This made it difficult for citizens to consume the data, as it was hard to understand via tabular displays rather than visuals that highlight trends and patterns. The user experience was not engaging, and the data was static, preventing further exploration by users. The Directorate itself was also limited in its ability to publish new datasets and ensure that publications were up-to-date due to the technical nature of the process. The Directorate needed a modern solution to provide a better way for its users to explore, author new content, and consume data with less IT involvement.
About The Customer
The Norwegian Directorate of Health is a subordinate agency of the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services. It is responsible for monitoring conditions that affect public health and identifying public health trends across Norway. The Directorate of Health is also in charge of implementing action plans and campaigns derived from the collected data to improve public health. The Directorate’s target groups are Norway’s citizens (over 5 million) as well as the health care industry professionals, the media, and research groups. Those requiring information about health, health rights, care services, and those engaged in the provision of health and care services are the primary focus of the Directorate. As a result, one of the three key values of the Directorate of Health is Openness. The Directorate strives to have its work characterized by clarity, transparency, open processes, and clear communication to better serve its target groups.
The Solution
The Directorate started to build new visual reports, mostly in the form of interactive dashboards, using the Dundas BI platform. The reports were then embedded within the Directorate of Health’s public portal, allowing the entire Norwegian population (and the rest of the world) to access the reports and to start interacting with the data in a self-service manner. This allowed for the Directorate to better visualize benchmarks and variation to find areas that receive different service levels than the norm. Consequently, the reports appeared as an integral part of the Directorate’s portal. Simple integration APIs and other built-in administration capabilities, such as anonymous user log-on, also supported the integration, ensuring that no administration maintenance was required. Dundas BI’s platform, built on HTML5 technology with mobile support such as long tap, pinch to zoom and smart resizing, is used to enable all users to access the solution via any device, including tablets and other mobile devices.
Operational Impact
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