Data-Driven Transformation in Asthma Care for NHS North West London ICB

Client

NHS North West London ICB

Industry

Healthcare, Public Sector

Solution

Data Analytics

Background

NHS North West London Integrated Care Board (ICB) is dedicated to meeting the healthcare needs of over 2.1 million people across eight boroughs in North West London. Responsible for managing the NHS budget and ensuring the provision of diverse health services, NHS NW London ICB faced the challenge of optimising care delivery amidst complex data sets and diverse healthcare needs.

The Challenge

NHS NW London ICB identified a critical need for a centralised, comprehensive tool to better understand the population of asthma patients and key factors affecting asthma care decisions across the region. Clinicians and service leads lacked insights into population health, clinical treatment, financial impact, and wider determinants of asthmatic health. The goal was to leverage existing data to drive transformative improvements in patient care and operational efficiency.

The Solution

London Asthma Decision Support (LADS) Tool

To address these challenges, Vizify Analytics collaborated with NHS NW London ICB and several key partners to develop the highly commended London Asthma Decision Support (LADS) tool. This groundbreaking data visualisation solution integrates air pollution, demographic, and social deprivation data with routinely collected NHS data to provide actionable insights for early intervention and improved outcomes. The solution was developed in Tableau, utilising SQL data pipelines to manage and process the data.

Key aspects assessed by the LADS tool

Population health insights
Asthmatic population trends over time, demographics (age, gender, ethnicity), co-morbidities, and clinical interactions.
Clinical treatment analysis:
Delivery methods, diagnostics, prescriptions, and patient monitoring.
Financial impact assessment:
Costs associated with primary care, acute care, prescriptions, and hospital stays.
Wider determinants of health:
Environmental and socio-economic factors such as smoking status, BMI, and social deprivation.

Our Approach

Discovery: Engaging with clinicians and service leads to understand requirements and co-create dashboard wireframes.
Accelerated delivery: Parallel development of SQL data pipelines and Tableau dashboards by two simultaneous teams.
User acceptance testing: Iterative testing by internal and clinical teams.
Security implementation: Ensuring data security and user access control through identity-based filters in Tableau.
Deployment: Publishing dashboards to Tableau Server with comprehensive documentation.

Results & Recognition

The LADS tool enabled clinical teams to intervene earlier in the patient pathway, improving outcomes and focusing on health equity. It provided a geospatial view of asthma metrics, enhancing data-driven decision-making at various levels (Health Borough, Primary Care Network, and GP Practice).
The tool’s impact was recognised with a highly commended achievement in the Data-Driven Transformation Award at the 2023 HSJ Awards, underscoring its excellence in healthcare data visualisation.

Slide Background

Vizify's LADS solution has revolutionised our decision-making process at NHS North West London ICB. Their Tableau dashboards have empowered us with deeper insights, driving transformative improvements in asthma patient care and operational efficiency. Their expertise has been invaluable in revolutionising our approach to healthcare delivery.