We will cover how NHS Wales data is obtained, managed, presented and used at various levels within the Health Service and in government.
Speakers
Rebecca Cook, Head of Information Design and Standards Development at NHS Wales Informatics Service
Gareth John, Head of Information Development and Delivery at NHS Wales Informatics Service
Agenda
18:30 - Webinar starts
20:00 - Webinar ends
Synopsis
COVID has brought unprecedented challenges to the NHS in Wales, and the IT professionals within the NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) have been at the heart of the national Welsh response to the pandemic.
NWIS Information Directorate provides services and support that allows all Wales health data to be housed, organised and distributes in various ways:
- We collect and process the facts and figures that help NHS Wales run effectively and store it in an NHS Wales data warehouse, in accordance with national standards and Information Governance policies. Collected data is analysed and converted to useful information and statistics that ultimately benefits patient care.
- To give health boards, trusts and Welsh Government access to the information they need in the way they want it, we produce a range of web apps including dashboards, data quality indicators, health maps, online reporting tools and tailored e-portals.
- We aim to improve the quality of clinically coded healthcare information in NHS Wales, including details of Welsh coding standards and enhanced training programmes. We also provide a clinical coding service to clarify current classification rules and ensure data is recorded consistently and accurately.
- We support improved quality of information used in NHS Wales through standardisation – aiming for a shared understanding of words and numbers used in healthcare services. We maintain the NHS Wales Data Dictionary - a user-friendly guide to the definition, collection and interpretation of the nationally agreed data standards adopted by the NHS in Wales as well as Data Standards services.
We currently collect data from numerous sources across Welsh healthcare. We store the data of more than 50 million outpatient visits and 27 million in-patient episodes of care. We also maintain a range of other national databases covering secondary care, births, deaths, child health and more. In response to the pandemic, we have established a COVID-19 Datastore which brings in new and existing data to provide intelligence for key decisions in Wales in relation to the pandemic. Without good quality, timely, well-presented data, a national collaborative response to the pandemic would have been challenging.
In this talk, Rebecca Cook and Gareth John will present the COVID data story from NWIS Information Services, including demonstrations of the NWIS COVID-19 Datahub and the National Modelling Reports. The talk will cover how NHS Wales data is obtained, managed, presented and used at various levels within the Health Service and in government to inform pandemic planning and response.
About the speakers
Rebecca Cook is Head of Information Design and Standards Development at NHS Wales Informatics Service. Rebecca is an accomplished NHS Informatics professional with 15 years’ experience working in a national informatics organisation. Rebecca is responsible for data standards development and assurance, reference data development and distribution, clinical classifications and terminology services for NHS Wales. As part of the NWIS COVID Command Structure, Rebecca has taken on the role of Data Lead managing all COVID data workstreams.
Gareth John is Head of Information Development and Delivery at NHS Wales Informatics Service, heading up the data management and analytical functions of the information department. Gareth has nearly 22 years of working with national health datasets, with a strong statistical background and passable enough technical skills to hold down a conversation about SQL Server. Gareth has a particular interest in record linkage and the maximising the usefulness of routinely collected data in the tackling of challenging research and policy questions and was fundamental in the establishment of the world-renowned SAIL research databank, based in Swansea University. During COVID, Gareth has been responsible for bringing together a wide range of new data sources to inform decision-making within both Welsh Government and Local Health Boards.
Our events are for adults aged 16 years and over.
This event is brought to you by: South Wales branch
