Investigating the most effective method to communicate data for clinical decision making in spinal cord injury rehabilitation.

About the Project

About

QuickStart is a new Queensland Spinal Cord Injuries Service (QSCIS) arm that has been operating for 18 months under temporary funding. QuickStart provides early access to specialist spinal cord injury (SCI) services through an in-reach model. The service has evolved in response to patients with SCI awaiting admission to the Spinal Injuries Unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Queensland.
With the advent of QuickStart we are capturing data on all new referrals for people with new SCIs. We are beginning to get a clearer sense of the nature and volume of unmet need for early SCI specialist services in Queensland.
However, the dataset collected about QuickStart service provision has been developed ad-hoc and organically. It currently relies on rudimentary spreadsheets and produces basic data visualisations.
There is potential for significant improvements in how the data is visualised, so it can be explored and communicated to teams in a user-friendly way so that clinicians and managers can gain accurate insights and make decisions.

Aim and objective

Develop a low-fidelity prototype data collection, analysis, and real-time visualisation solution to map data on the inward entry points to QSCIS.
Develop the above based on a scoping review of the literature, a benchmarking activity and user-centred design, involving user focus groups.
Explore early data on the utility of the communication strategy.

Outcomes expected

Develop a strategy for communicating data to clinicians and managers in QSCIS for decision-making.
This will include a data visualization solution (data dashboard), built with user-centred design principles.
The dashboard and communication strategy will be developed based on
- an analysis of focus-groups, aiming to identify the type of data that is actionable for clinicians and managers within QSCIS, and
- a scoping review of the literature around effective methods to communicate data for clinical decision making.

Impact

The data communication strategy has potential to enable users within QSCIS to explore data on spinal cord injury in Queensland, such as prevalence, geographical spread, patient journeys and timelines, demographics, comorbidities, secondary conditions and access to disability funding.

It is anticipated that this access to data will assist QSCIS to target communication and education initiatives to referrers, streamline communication within and around the five arms of QSCIS, and make informed decisions regarding resource allocation, professional skill mix, workload strategies, prioritisations and admissions.

People/organisations involved