Sustainable Analytics: a healthier approach to analytics

The Challenge

Today, data analytics and AI form two of the key focus areas for organisational leaders around the world. This is no different in health and care. However, they present three unique challenges:

1. Data Access: balancing the dichotomy of data privacy/ security and open, ethical access to data to support collaborative innovation

2. Data Literacy and Data Quality: variation in data literacy and poor data quality hindering data driven decisions

3. Measuring Value: lack of a robust approach or data/ analytics strategy to measuring benefits/ outcomes and optimising the life-time spend on analytics and supporting infrastructure 

Sustainable Analytics® Framework 

To address these challenges, through decades of combined practical experience, we are proposing a framework to engineer lasting analytic solutions, using viable techniques, that drive data driven decisions - the Sustainable Analytics® Framework:

• 1. Ethically maximise the value of data:

  driving initiatives around collective responsibility for data quality along with enriching data assets by allowing interoperability and data linkage.

• 2. Design analytics with a purpose:

  co-designing analytics and visualisations to address a problem statement with the problem owner to drive a specific data driven action and in turn improving data literacy.

• 3. Utilise fit for purpose approaches:

  utilising fit for purpose analytic approaches that align with the use case, data & infrastructure maturity.

• 4. Invest in R&D and data sharing:

  driving R&D by sharing data ethically with appropriate controls and data sharing policies without compromising privacy and security, specifically developing a sandbox populated with test data & unique organisational problem statements to support both internal and external innovators and researchers.

• 5. Develop benefits case and measure value:

  investment decisions made on the back of a robust benefits case with continued measurement of impact and course correction where required.

• 6. Grow internal capability:

  develop a sustainable workforce, that are data literate and capable of using and maintaining analytic solutions, by investing in internal capability building.

Applying the principles of the framework would enable a health and care organisation, system or healthcare technology provider to,

• optimise its life-time spend on analytic solutions and continuously drive organisational benefits,

• improve the quality of data assets and enable data access to drive innovation and proposition development, and

• ultimately drive data driven decisions, enabling efficient and effective healthcare management.

All underpinned by enabling the workforce to be self-sufficient and capable of supporting, maintaining and innovating analytics for the organisation.

Our Evidence

We have delivered over 30 projects across health and care organisations, systems and healthcare technology providers. To name a few examples, we have applied the framework to,

• one of the largest NHS organisations, the ​​Northern Care Alliance (NCA), to prototype a predictive district nursing wall of analytics.

  Through our work we engaged NCA’s specialist nursing team, both operational and front line, to co-design and prototype a district nursing wall of analytics. By utilising fit for purpose analytics and ensuring internal capability was developed throughout, NCA’s specialist nursing team are self-sufficient and currently using the prototype to drive data driven operational decisions and capacity planning.

• a global digital exemplar health & care system, South Tyneside and Sunderland health and care system, to design & develop a Command Centre programme.

  Through our work we conducted a feasibility study to set out the rationale and a recommendation for the South Tyneside and Sunderland health and care system to pursue a Command Centre programme. As part of this study, we designed mock-up analytics with a purpose and the developed a full business case including a benefits case and an approach to optimise the life-time spend on the programme.

• to a clinical scheduling software developer, Civica Scheduling, to add an analytics platform to improve their existing community services scheduling product.

  Through our work we engaged with stakeholders and customers to design a user-centred, purpose driven analytics platform. The platform now forms part of the core product and is driving data driven decisions to bring sustained service improvements and better management of caseload demand and capacity in community health care.

Your Feedback

We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the framework. In particular, which elements resonate in your organisation and/ or what's missing or needs amendment.

We will continue to update our thinking based on our experience and your feedback. We will aim to publish our updated thinking along with more detail and practical examples on each element of the framework.

Our vision is to collaboratively refine the Sustainable Analytics framework with the aim of being open to everyone to use.

About Us

Sustainable Analytics® is a data and analytics consultancy on a mission to drive a healthier approach to analytics, enabling sustainable data driven organisations with measurable benefits and optimised spend on analytic solutions. 

We have worked with over 20 health and care organisations, systems and healthcare technology providers, across UK, Europe, USA and the Middle East, to deliver data and analytics advisory enhanced with purpose built products, models and dashboards.

Applying our Sustainable Analytics framework, we engineer lasting analytic solutions, using viable techniques, that drive data driven decisions.