Govt uses data analytics to aid in COVID-19 decision-making

The Australian Government Department of Health will use Qlik’s technology to deliver data analytics capabilities in support of the Department’s reporting of COVID-19 related information to key stakeholders. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Australia, the Department of Health has been using Qlik to provide health offices a clear perspective on COVID-19 related statistics. Qlik’s data visualisation and analytics solutions underpin COVID-19 public announcements, pandemic incident management and COVID-19 updates on the Department of Health website.

The Department needed a rapid data solution that was external facing, easily adaptable and could support the National Incident Room to provide curated data on a daily basis, to keep the Australian public informed on the unfolding pandemic. Qlik offered an end-to-end solution, allowing the Department to join many disparate datasets quickly and produce a range of reporting formats. Qlik provided a prototype platform to the Department at the onset of the pandemic, with a live public website available shortly after to provide information to support approximately half a million hits a day.

Qlik solutions were used across a range of areas, including COVID-19 public service announcements and an Informatic Placement — a manually constructed visual dashboard that highlighted key figures related to the spread of COVID-19. This was later updated to enable automated reporting, reducing time spent by staff in the National Incident Room to curate the information by five to six hours daily. Qlik also provided Pandemic Incident Management (PIM), a user-centric dashboard that was created by combining different data models and Qlik apps to create analytics for internal use.

For its work, the Australian Government Department of Health was presented with the Qlik Excellence in Healthcare Award at Qlik’s Australia and New Zealand Health & Public Sector Digital Transformation Awards 2021. Charlie Farah, Director of Industry Solutions for Healthcare and Public Sector at Qlik, said Australia’s well-regarded approach to the COVID-19 pandemic can be attributed to a well-coordinated and collaborative effort across government, the healthcare sector and the private sector, which was underpinned by data-driven decision-making.

“This enabled the government to swiftly act and provide clear communication to citizens and state authorities on the rapidly changing situation to help limit the spread of COVID-19 within the community,” said Farah.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Minerva Studio