De-identified general practice data provides valuable information on the management of patients within general practice and the activities of GPs.
Data can be used at many levels, such:
by clinics for quality improvement
at a local government level to monitor disease and treatment patterns
at the state level for planning and delivery of health care services and programs.
Data sharing enables Primary Health Tasmania to collect, analyse and feed back practice data to participating general practices in Tasmania.
Our role
Summaries of the information collected will be regularly provided to practices where it can be used for planning around patient care and data quality improvement activities.
Practices will have the opportunity to ask targeted questions about their practice population, with support from Primary Health Tasmania to answer these questions.
We will work as a “data partner” with participating practices to report against agreed quality improvement measures.
These are to be introduced nationally in the Practice Incentive Program during 2019, allowing practices to be eligible for this payment.
This easy-to-follow fact sheet summarises how the Primary Health Information Network – our de-identified data sharing and analysis program – fits with PIP QI.
Data collection and security
We will never use data for commercial or financial gain. Our interest is supporting an integrated, safe and high-quality health system for Tasmania.
All data collected will be de-identified and aggregated. Individual patients and GPs will not be identifiable to any external party.
Data will be stored in a secure on-shore data warehouse which is compliant with national security and privacy legislation (including limited access protocols) and our internal data governance and security framework.
All reports will be provided to participating practices for their comment and information.
No practice, or unit level de-identified data will be shared with any external parties without practice consent.
Human Research Ethics Committee approval will be sought in the case of any data analyses to be shared broadly or for publication.
Get involved
The Primary Health Information Network (PHIN) Advisory Group enables participating practices to view aggregated practice information, such as immunisation coverage for their clinic, and compare with other settings in Tasmania. It will be available for free for all Tasmanian practices as a quarterly report.
The advisory group will meet quarterly, with members providing input into the content and format of the reports and advising on other related matters, and members will be reimbursed for attendance in accordance with Primary Health Tasmania policy.
For more information, or to flag your practice’s interest in being part of the group, get in touch.
