We prepared a mock-up of what the patient would see to select the surgery they needed…
Fraser Health Soonest Surgery Tool
… and a mock-up of what the search results might look like.
Fraser Health said they would be delighted if such a tool could in fact be produced.
Team members expressed concern though with using the readily available public data as it was only updated quarterly and did not account for a number of variables.
Digging deeper into the sources of data, the team learned that the Surgical Patient Registry (SPR) at the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) was the repository for data on all surgeries booked and completed. With approval from PHSA, the SPR Manager and several other data analysts and technology specialists officially joined the team. We also brought in our very own mathematical genius and data architect.
Over the next several weeks, the “data” team members analyzed the available data, proposed, tested, and revised a series of algorithms that would produce the desired results. Other members of the team were dispatched to work on the user interface, write plain language definitions for all of the surgical procedures, investigate and resolve any data privacy concerns, and develop a hosting strategy that would not conflict with IT security policies of Fraser Health or PHSA.