The pandemic imperative: clinical data and analytics platform to improve clinical outcomes through point-of-care decision support

Start Date

23 April 2020

End Date

30 June 2023

Project Participants

Australian Government Department of Health Disability and Ageing, Ministry of Health NSW, Monash University, Queensland Health, Queensland University of Technology, University of Sydney

Status: Completed

Tags: artificial intelligence (AI), causal modelling, clinical decision support, COVID-19, data analytics, data governance, data linkage, dynamic consent, health system, infrastructure, interoperability, long COVID, population health

Opportunity 

Australia’s response to COVID-19 highlighted the need for faster, safer and more connected use of clinical data. Health systems needed to integrate information across jurisdictions and organisations to support clinical decision-making, accelerate research and enable adaptive clinical trials.  

This project sought to create a way to systematically capture a broad range of clinical and patient reported data spanning the entire patient journey, from diagnosis through management and into long term follow up, of people diagnosed in community and/or presenting to hospitals with proven or suspected COVID-19 infection. 

Objectives 

The existing Clinical Data and Analytics Platform (CDAP) was established to demonstrate how a modern digital health platform could transform routine health data into actionable knowledge. 

This project aimed to use CDAP and build in real-time clinical decision support through relevant analytic approaches and support the rapid implementation of clinical trials to determine which treatment strategies save lives quickly and avoid serious morbidity in COVID-19 infection. 

The project delivered modular, secure CDAP architecture, demonstrated a reusable dynamic eConsent capability, and established secure cloud-hosted approaches for Bayesian clinical models. The team also created expert-derived models of COVID-19 disease progression which enabled the deployment of the publicly available COVID-I online clinical decision support calculator. 

The project also produced adaptive clinical trial frameworks that supported multiple clinical studies which secured external funding to be implemented nationally and internationally to advance knowledge of COVID-19.  

A major component of the project was identification of governance reforms needed for nationally-connected health data systems. This included a major health data governance review and investigation of legislative and organisational barriers to health data access, resulting in recommendations that directly led to practical reforms to Queensland data governance policy. 

This project explored how Australia can build learning health systems that combine real-world clinical data, analytics and clinical expertise. The project produced reusable digital infrastructure, strengthened national capability in explainable AI and adaptive trials, informed governance reform to accelerate secure access to health data for research and innovation, and created foundations for further digital health innovation.

Integrity, Excellence,
Teamwork and Authenticity

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