As previously communicated to general practices, those holding Data Sharing Agreements with WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) are set to benefit from the new data storage and analytics platform, Primary Health Insights.
Developed by PHNs as a national collaborative initiative, the vision for Primary Health Insights is to use advanced analytics tools to produce greater insights from de-identified general practice data. General practices and PHNs will be more informed when making decisions about Australian primary health care delivery and improving patient health outcomes.
The first stage of realising this vision has been completed with de-identified patient data routinely extracted from general practice clinical information systems (CISs) is now being stored on this platform. Primary Heath Insights provides a high level of data security and governance. Built using leading edge cloud storage technology, the platform is subject to rigorous and ongoing cyber security validation and the robust National Data Governance Framework.
Data stored on the platform is determined by the existing Data Sharing Agreement in place between a practice and WA Primary Health Alliance and could include data extracted for general practice PIP QI purposes.
De-identified patient data held on Primary Health Insights cannot be combined with other data sets to identify individuals. The obligations and responsibilities of general practices to obtain and manage patient consent for sharing de-identified health data remain unchanged.
WA Primary Health Alliance is the developer and operator of Primary Health Insights on behalf of the 27 participating PHNs. The Australian Medical Association, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Rural Doctors Association of Australia, Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia, Consumers Health Forum of Australia and the Health Consumers’ Council of WA have been briefed about this initiative and all expressed their support.
Practices will be kept informed regarding the ongoing enhancements of the platform as analytics capabilities are progressed. Further information can be found at www.primaryhealthinsights.org.au.