A dashboard of predictive analytics and decision support: Improving the quality of aged care in Australia

A dashboard of predictive analytics and decision support to drive care quality and person-centred outcomes in aged care

This project is supported by an NHMRC Partnership Project grant with Anglicare (APP1170898).

Project members

Professor Johanna Westbrook Professor and Director	Professor Andrew Georgiou Professor	A/Prof Magdalena Raban Associate Professor
Dr Nasir Wabe Senior Research Fellow	Dr Amy Nguyen Research Fellow	Dr Karla Seaman Research Fellow
Dr Sandun Malpriya Silva Research Fellow	Dr Andrea Timothy Research Fellow	Dr Guogui Huang Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Desiree Chantelle Firempong Research Assistant	Maeve Ryan Research Assistant

Contact

Dr Amy Nguyen
Research Fellow

Project description, aims and methods

Description

The quality of aged care is a concern for all Australians. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety indicated a system facing significant challenges. Australians need better quality aged care and greater transparency; a system that responds to older peoples’ needs, identifies when they are at risk, and answers in effective and compassionate ways.

Our aged care sector is data rich but information poor. Although providers now collect vast amounts of electronic clinical and care management data, very little attention has been placed on the power of analytics to exploit this data to deliver actionable information about aged care quality. This includes enabling preventive action by creating predictive risk models to provide earlier identification of older Australians who are at risk of adverse events, and implementing real-time integrated data views, such as clinical dashboards, that provide overviews and alerts of areas of care requiring attention.

Aims

This is a five-year mixed-methods study that aims to:

1. Co-develop an aged care dashboard which presents a visual overview of key indicators and embedded decision support to guide care decisions in residential aged care settings
2. Identify and assess design and work process features which support the integration of dashboard use and decision support by multiple user groups (e.g. facility managers, staff and GPs, clients/families) into their everyday practice and lives
3. Implement and evaluate the impact of the dashboard on evidence-based care decisions (e.g. medication use) and client outcomes (e.g. hospitalisations; client reported wellbeing) using a randomised controlled trial, and process and economic evaluations.

Recent publications

1. Wabe N, Meulenbroeks I, Firempong DC, Raban MZ, Nguyen AD, Close JT, Lord SR, Westbrook JI (2024) Vitamin D supplementation and falls in residential aged care: A longitudinal multisite cohort study. Bone Reports.
2. Wabe N, Huang G, Silva SM, Nguyen AD, Seaman K, Raban MZ, Gates P, Day R, Close JC, Lord SR, Westbrook JI (2024) A longitudinal study of the use and effects of fall-risk-increasing drugs in residential aged care. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
3. Huang G, Wabe N, Raban MZ, Silva SS, Seaman K, Nguyen AD, Meulenbroeks I, Westbrook JI (2024) The relationship between participation in leisure activities and incidence of falls in residential aged care. PLoS one.
4. Wabe N, Meulenbroeks I, Huang G, Silva SM, Gray LC, Close JC, Lord S, Westbrook JI (2024) Development and internal validation of a dynamic fall risk prediction and monitoring tool in aged care using routinely collected electronic health data: a landmarking approach. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
5. Meulenbroeks I, Mercado C, Gates P, Nguyen A, Seaman K, Wabe N, Silva SM, Zheng WY, Debono D, Westbrook J (2024) Effectiveness of fall prevention interventions in residential aged care and community settings: an umbrella review. BMC geriatrics.
6. Seaman K, Huang G, Wabe N, Nguyen A, Pinto S, Westbrook J (2023) Hospitalisations before and after entry into a residential aged care facility: An interrupted time series analysis. Australasian Journal on Ageing.
7. Seaman K, Meulenbroeks I, Nguyen A, Silva S, Wabe N, Huang G, Hibert P, Paudel P, Westbrook J (2023) Innovative approaches to analysing aged care falls incident data: international classification for patient safety and correspondence analysis. International Journal for Quality in Health Care.
8. Siette J, Dodds L, Sharifi F, Nguyen A, Baysari M, Seaman K, Raban M, Wabe N, Westbrook J (2023) Usability and acceptability of clinical dashboards in aged care: systematic review. JMIR aging.
9. Huang G, Wabe N, Raban MZ, Seaman KL, Silva SM, Westbrook JI (2023) The relationship between fall incidents and place of birth in residential aged care facilities: a retrospective longitudinal cohort study. BMC geriatrics.
10. Wabe N, Siette J, Seaman KL, Nguyen AD, Raban MZ, Close JC, Lord SR, Westbrook JI (2022) The use and predictive performance of the Peninsula Health Falls Risk Assessment Tool (PH-FRAT) in 25 residential aged care facilities: a retrospective cohort study using routinely collected data. BMC geriatrics.
11. Wabe N, Seaman KL, Nguyen AD, Siette J, Raban MZ, Hibbert P, Close JC, Lord SR, Westbrook JI (2022) Epidemiology of falls in 25 Australian residential aged care facilities: a retrospective longitudinal cohort study using routinely collected data. International Journal for Quality in Health Care.
12. Seaman K, Ludlow K, Wabe N, Dodds L, Siette J, Nguyen A, Jorgensen M, Lord SR, Close JC, O’Toole L, Lin C (2022) The use of predictive fall models for older adults receiving aged care, using routinely collected electronic health record data: a systematic review. BMC geriatrics.
13. Ludlow K, Westbrook J, Jorgensen M, Lind KE, Baysari MT, Gray LC, et al.  Day RO, Ratcliffe J, Lord SR, Georgiou A, Braithwaite J (2021) Co-designing a dashboard of predictive analytics and decision support to drive care quality and client outcomes in aged care: a mixed-method study protocol. BMJ Open.
14. Lind K.E, Raban M.Z, Brett L, Jorgenson M.L, Georgiou G, Westbrook J.I (2020). Measuring the prevalence of 60 health conditions in older Australians in residential aged care with electronic health records: a retrospective dynamic cohort study. Population Health Metrics.

Related Links

Integrating aged care services in the community

Related stream of research

Aged Care Evaluation Research (ACER) team

Project Status

Current

Centres Related to this Project

Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research