Business Analytics and Insight | NECS

Prevalence of obesity in Tees Valley

NECS — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 09:47:06 +0000

The challenge

Tees Valley Combined Authority wanted to determine whether the prevalence of obesity in the Tees Valley is greater than in other areas of the UK, what the causes might be and the impact upon the economy of the region.

Our response

NECS carried out a deep-dive review of a wide range of data sources:

Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) – NHS Digital.
Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) – NHS Digital.
National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) – NHS Digital.
Estimated prevalence of obesity including overweight – Department of Geography and Environment, University of Southampton and Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth.
Public Health Profiles – Public Health England.
Annual Population Survey – Office for National Statistics.
Access to health assets and hazards index – Consumer Data Research Centre.
Primary and Secondary Care Data – NECS.

The following techniques and tools were used:

Mapping techniques.
Software to demonstrate spatial patterns of obesity.
Population segmentation analysis applied to Primary Care and Secondary Care data.
Statistical neighbour analysis to compare Tees Valley with other similar areas of the UK.

Outcomes

The indicators suggest that the prevalence of obesity in the Tees Valley is higher than national averages. More detailed geographical breakdowns show large variation in obesity prevalence within the Tees Valley at local authority level.

There are significant hotspots of obesity within the Tees Valley and there is a strong correlation between obesity, overall deprivation and unemployment.

This was used across Teesside to develop the local area action plan across system partners in health, local authorities and industry to tackle obesity over the coming five years.

Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Workforce Demand project

NECS — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 09:46:54 +0000

The challenge

NECS’s Business Analytics and Insight team was commissioned to work with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CPS) in England to analyse the size of the physiotherapy workforce needed to deliver NHS policy commitments in England, This was to include both the registered and unregistered workforce, using multiple and separate data sources.

It was intended that the CSP and its members would be able to use this work to influence national and local policy, in order for physiotherapy workforce numbers to be adequate enough to not only deliver targets, but to improve patient care, safely and effectively.

Our response

The BAI team at NECS undertook a thorough analytical investigation of all available data sources to support the challenge, including:

Analysis of 12 national and bespoke data sets, which held various elements of physiotherapy data to inform the national picture
Production of a review and data specification document of each of the dataset and tables
Development of an intelligence dashboard which supplied data analysis around the registered and unregistered workforce to inform national policy.

The following techniques and tools were used:

ICS mapping analysis for the rollout of the place-based analysis
Excel and SQL based interactive dashboard for customer
A literature review of bespoke datasets
CSP, HCPC, HESA, AQR, NHS Workforce, UCAS data all combined into a single version of the truth dashboard.

Outcomes

Data analysis provided to the CPS indicated that there was increased growth in the number of physiotherapists since 2019 and that England is ranked 6th against international neighbours in physiotherapist per 1000 population (Source: HCPC 2021).

By using a combination of datasets and sources, NECS was successfully able to provide the CPS with a dashboard which predicted and confirmed workforce numbers, which the CPS now uses to inform national NHS policy.

Development and adoption of PHM

NECS — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 09:46:40 +0000

The challenge

Suffolk and North East Essex (SNEE) Integrated Care System (ICS) sought a partner to support the development of, and to accelerate the adoption of, Population Health Management (PHM) across their localities.

Our response

NECS analysts initially facilitated Information Governance (IG) arrangements to enable key local and national data to be shared and linked at patient level, including Primary, Community, Secondary and Tertiary care information. This allowed a patient’s ‘journey’ through the healthcare system to be tracked at an individual level and then advanced PHM analytics applied.

The following techniques and tools were applied at ICS, Alliance and PCN level:

Risk stratification
Impactability modelling
Predictive modelling

Outcomes

The project was very successful in supporting PCNs across the ICS footprint in identifying population health interventions which would have the highest impact on local outcomes.

“It’s been an eye-opening exercise, looking at the numbers across the systems spent in my PCN. NECS has been very supportive throughout the project, always challenging appropriately and respectfully, especially when we were discussing our short, medium and long-term goals which was the main driver in bringing us together and reaching the targets successfully, as we agreed in a group.” 

Dr Ayesha Tu Zahra GP

IESCCG Clinical Executive Lead for Maternity