Frimley ICS

Key successes

• Gathered valuable insight and accurate predictions from data to better manage GP practices and hospitals and better serve patients
• Ensured control and ownership of data remains within the ICS at all times
• Enabled rapid four-week set-up and cost-efficient scaling of data lab with Microsoft Azure cloud technology

Building trust in data sharing

We helped Frimley ICS, a UK healthcare partnership organisation, discover how to use data from partner organisations in the ICS to plan better, more efficient services for patients. Our team of data, transformation and healthcare experts took an ingenious approach. Instead of assembling all the available data and looking for potentially useful opportunities for analysis, we focused on a single hypothesis: we can predict the number of repeat visits to a GP surgery within seven days based on the information in the appointment book. This focused approach meant we could build a basic product and prove the concept within a few days. We used Microsoft Azure cloud technology to speed up this work and keep costs low.

We quickly showed that valuable insights can be drawn from even messy and incomplete data. Our team was able to predict future repeat visits with a high degree of accuracy. In the real world, this insight could help a surgery match staffing levels to patient demand more accurately as well as identify frequent users of their services and proactively manage these patients. By analysing appointment data, we were able to identify patients making repeated return visits and use this indicator so clinicians could investigate their treatment plan and tailor appropriately using the wider system of care.

Helping to scale fast

Frimley ICS were so impressed with the results from our initial proof of concept they asked us to explore more hypotheses, looking at A&E admissions and cancer care. This analysis also yielded valuable insights that are being addressed by the relevant clinicians and hospital managers.

We are now operationalising and scaling the data lab to continue to identify actionable insights right across the ICS. The way we have set up the data lab means Frimley ICS will retain ownership and control of sensitive patient data at all times. This means partner organisations can be confident any data they share will be handled in accordance with strict data privacy regulations. Focusing on a specific hypotheses and requesting only the data required to prove each one will also help on this front.

It took us just four weeks to start unlocking valuable insights from Frimley ICS’s data and to implement a scalable data lab. Our approach is driving a positive human future for people looking to the partnership to shape high-quality integrated care.