Problem
Health data lacking transparency for the general population
Background
Health data in Portugal is typically released in extensive reports with significant technical detail, primarily consulted by industry professionals with specific responsibilities. Nevertheless, the availability of critical data such as mortality, infant mortality, or antidepressant consumption is extremely important for various academic and business sectors.
Challenge
To utilize technology to create an IT system that not only disseminates health data in a simple manner but also automatically receives data and performs automatic forecasting of future values.
Description
The Health Dashboard Project is a paradigmatic example of implementing a statistical and probabilistic solution on the Masterlink Platform. Specifically, information is collected on a set of national indicators and subsequently processed into charts and ordered tables. This information is extracted from sources such as Excel spreadsheets or web services, and then routed to a set of algorithms responsible for distilling and categorizing it into indicators, regions, and age groups. This forms specific clusters representing historical records to date, as well as—and this is a key point to emphasize—what would be expected in various periods. It determines if data is in line with observations, falls short, or is exceeded; in the latter case, it serves as an alert to analyze the causes or phenomena behind such variation.
The Health Dashboard also incorporates a prediction engine for forecasting future values. This makes it possible to anticipate, based on the entire history or a more recent portion of it, what values are expected for an indicator and a region, or even for the entire country. Projecting the immediate future can help authorities anticipate important actions.
Possessing reliable expectations regarding future data is in itself an indicator of which actions to maintain, reinforce, or correct. Ideally, the goal is to prevent rather than just react, making the Health Dashboard a tool of immense value.
This project is a case study for the dissemination of data related to vital indicators concerning the country, its regions, and a significant range of contexts. It also provides insight into current behaviors and those expected within a year. In short, the Dashboard allows for observation and forecasting, thereby helping to prevent.
