Digital dashboards visualizing public health data: a systematic review

Evaluation of different landing pages on behavioural engagement with the CARA dashboard: A user research protocol

BACKGROUND

CARA set out to develop a data-visualisation platform to facilitate general practitioners to develop a deeper understanding of their patient population, disease management and prescribing through dashboards. To support the continued use and sustainability of the CARA dashboards, dashboard performance and user engagement have to be optimised. User research places people at the centre of the design process and aims to evaluate the needs, behaviours and attitudes of users to inform the design, development and impact of a product.

OBJECTIVE

To explore how different initial key messages impact the level of behavioural engagement with a CARA dashboard.

METHODS

Participating general practices can upload their practice data for analysis and visualisation in CARA dashboards. Practices will be randomised to one of three different initial landing pages: the full dashboard or one of two key messages: a between comparison (their practice prescribing with the average of all other practices) or within comparison (with practice data of the same month the previous year) with subsequent continuation to the full dashboard. Analysis will determine which of the three landing pages encourages user interaction, as measured by the number of 'clicks', 'viewings' and 'sessions'. Dashboard usage data will be collected through Google analytics.

DISCUSSION

This study will provide evidence of behavioural engagement and its metrics during the implementation of the CARA dashboards to optimise and sustain interaction.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ISRCTN32783644 (Registration date: 02/01/2024).

National Public Health Dashboards: Protocol for a Scoping Review

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of robust public health data systems and the potential utility of data dashboards for ensuring access to critical public health data for diverse groups of stakeholders and decision makers. As dashboards are becoming ubiquitous, it is imperative to consider how they may be best integrated with public health data systems and the decision-making routines of diverse audiences. However, additional progress on the continued development, improvement, and sustainability of these tools requires the integration and synthesis of a largely fragmented scholarship regarding the purpose, design principles and features, successful implementation, and decision-making supports provided by effective public health data dashboards across diverse users and applications.

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review aims to provide a descriptive and thematic overview of national public health data dashboards including their purpose, intended audiences, health topics, design elements, impact, and underlying mechanisms of use and usefulness of these tools in decision-making processes. It seeks to identify gaps in the current literature on the topic and provide the first-of-its-kind systematic treatment of actionability as a critical design element of public health data dashboards.

METHODS

The scoping review follows the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. The review considers English-language, peer-reviewed journal papers, conference proceedings, book chapters, and reports that describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a public health dashboard published between 2000 and 2023. The search strategy covers scholarly databases (CINAHL, PubMed, Medline, and Web of Science) and gray literature sources and uses snowballing techniques. An iterative process of testing for and improving intercoder reliability was implemented to ensure that coders are properly trained to screen documents according to the inclusion criteria prior to beginning the full review of relevant papers.

RESULTS

The search process initially identified 2544 documents, including papers located via databases, gray literature searching, and snowballing. Following the removal of duplicate documents (n=1416), nonrelevant items (n=839), and items classified as literature reviews and background information (n=73), 216 documents met the inclusion criteria: US case studies (n=90) and non-US case studies (n=126). Data extraction will focus on key variables, including public health data characteristics; dashboard design elements and functionalities; intended users, usability, logistics, and operation; and indicators of usefulness and impact reported.

CONCLUSIONS

The scoping review will analyze the goals, design, use, usefulness, and impact of public health data dashboards. The review will also inform the continued development and improvement of these tools by analyzing and synthesizing current practices and lessons emerging from the literature on the topic and proposing a theory-grounded and evidence-informed framework for designing, implementing, and evaluating public health data dashboards.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)

DERR1-10.2196/52843.

Web-based Dashboard on ECMO Utilization in Germany: An Interactive Visualization, Analyses, and Prediction Based on Real-life Data

In Germany, a comprehensive reimbursement policy for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) results in the highest per capita use worldwide, although benefits remain controversial. Public ECMO data is unstructured and poorly accessible to healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers. In addition, there are no uniform policies for ECMO allocation which confronts medical personnel with ethical considerations during health crises such as respiratory virus outbreaks.Retrospective information on adult and pediatric ECMO support performed in German hospitals was extracted from publicly available reimbursement data and hospital quality reports and processed to create the web-based ECMO Dashboard built on Open-Source software. Patient-level and hospital-level data were merged resulting in a solid base for ECMO use analysis and ECMO demand forecasting with high spatial granularity at the level of 413 county and city districts in Germany.The ECMO Dashboard ( https://www.ecmo-dash.de/ ), an innovative visual platform, presents the retrospective utilization patterns of ECMO support in Germany. It features interactive maps, comprehensive charts, and tables, providing insights at the hospital, district, and national levels. This tool also highlights the high prevalence of ECMO support in Germany and emphasizes districts with ECMO surplus - where patients from other regions are treated, or deficit - origins from which ECMO patients are transferred to other regions. The dashboard will evolve iteratively to provide stakeholders with vital information for informed and transparent resource allocation and decision-making.Accessible public routine data could support evidence-informed, forward-looking resource management policies, which are urgently needed to increase the quality and prepare the critical care infrastructure for future pandemics.

New evidence on the real role of digital economy in influencing public health efficiency

In recent years, the rapid advancement of digital technology has supported the growth of the digital economy. The transformation towards digitization in the public health sector serves as a key indicator of this economic shift. Understanding how the digital economy continuously improves the efficiency of public health services and its various pathways of influence has become increasingly important. It is essential to clarify the impact mechanism of the digital economy on public health services to optimize health expenditures and advance digital economic construction. This study investigates the impact of digital economic development on the efficiency of public health services from a novel perspective, considering social media usage and urban-rural healthcare disparities while constructing a comprehensive index of digital economic development. The findings indicate that the digital economy reduces the efficiency of public health services primarily through two transmission mechanisms: the promotion of social media usage and the widening urban-rural healthcare gap. Moreover, these impacts and transmission pathways exhibit spatial heterogeneity. This study unveils the intrinsic connection and mechanisms of interaction between digital economic development and the efficiency of public health services, providing a theoretical basis and reference for government policy formulation. However, it also prompts further considerations on achieving synergy and interaction between the digital economy and public health services.

Public Health Dashboards in Overdose Prevention: The Rhode Island Approach to Public Health Data Literacy, Partnerships, and Action

As the field of public health rises to the demands of real-time surveillance and rapid data-sharing needs in a postpandemic world, it is time to examine our approaches to the dissemination and accessibility of such data. Distinct challenges exist when working to develop a shared public health language and narratives based on data. It requires that we assess our understanding of public health data literacy, revisit our approach to communication and engagement, and continuously evaluate our impact and relevance. Key stakeholders and cocreators are critical to this process and include people with lived experience, community organizations, governmental partners, and research institutions. In this viewpoint paper, we offer an instructive approach to the tools we used, assessed, and adapted across 3 unique overdose data dashboard projects in Rhode Island, United States. We are calling this model the "Rhode Island Approach to Public Health Data Literacy, Partnerships, and Action." This approach reflects the iterative lessons learned about the improvement of data dashboards through collaboration and strong partnerships across community members, state agencies, and an academic research team. We will highlight key tools and approaches that are accessible and engaging and allow developers and stakeholders to self-assess their goals for their data dashboards and evaluate engagement with these tools by their desired audiences and users.