Digital Dashboard Design Using Multiple Data Streams for Disease Surveillance With Influenza Surveillance as an Example

Abstract

BackgroundGreat strides have been made exploring and exploiting new and different sources of disease surveillance data and developing robust statistical methods for analyzing the collected data. However, there has been less research in the area of dissemination. Proper dissemination of surveillance data can facilitate the end user's taking of appropriate actions, thus maximizing the utility of effort taken from upstream of the surveillance-to-action loop.ObjectiveThe aims of the study were to develop a generic framework for a digital dashboard incorporating features of efficient dashboard design and to demonstrate this framework by specific application to influenza surveillance in Hong Kong.MethodsBased on the merits of the national websites and principles of efficient dashboard design, we designed an automated influenza surveillance digital dashboard as a demonstration of efficient dissemination of surveillance data. We developed the system to synthesize and display multiple sources of influenza surveillance data streams in the dashboard. Different algorithms can be implemented in the dashboard for incorporating all surveillance data streams to describe the overall influenza activity.ResultsWe designed and implemented an influenza surveillance dashboard that utilized self-explanatory figures to display multiple surveillance data streams in panels. Indicators for individual data streams as well as for overall influenza activity were summarized in the main page, which can be read at a glance. Data retrieval function was also incorporated to allow data sharing in standard format.ConclusionsThe influenza surveillance dashboard serves as a template to illustrate the efficient synthesization and dissemination of multiple-source surveillance data, which may also be applied to other diseases. Surveillance data from multiple sources can be disseminated efficiently using a dashboard design that facilitates the translation of surveillance information to public health actions.

A Design Protocol to Develop Radiology Dashboards

“…Determining the goal of dashboards design: Experts believe that dashboards objectives should be limited in order for the managers to allocate the resources to critical issues ( 16 )and divide the objectives into three groups: financial, operational and quality ( 17 ). Therefore, the goals of dashboards design for the department should be clear; whether it is for workflow consolidation, workload distribution, urgency evaluation ( 18 ), capacity and workflow management ( 19 ), surveillance ( 20 , 21 ), or financial reporting ( 22 ).…”

“…Data: A well designed dashboards should include accurate data which is related to business process from different sources and based on acceptable and standard definitions in order to be used in benchmarking process ( 30 ). In addition, data storage should be based on standard format and coding to be able to manipulate them easily, to facilitate sharing them, and reduce their processing time while updating and querying from dashboards ( 20 ).…”

“…Representation: Since dashboards is a tool for quick, brief, and real-time representation of data, organizing and displaying data should be such that it could be easily read and interpreted ( 35 ) and the user does not need to scroll the pages ( 20 ). Depending on the type of indicators and their numbers, we can use tables or graphs to display for users to understand and make decisions ( 30 ).…”

“… Designing data warehouse for gathering data from a variety of systems such as clinical information system and financial information system in order to get a comprehensive view of operations ( 34 ) Using back-end algorithm of indicators or statistics for providing general and detailed reports ( 20 ) Accessibility to Internet or Intranet in order to facilitate sharing data and maintain data dynamism ( 6 , 31 , 34 ) Utilizing SOA architecture to encapsulate data in middle ware layer to be of use in different systems ( 3 ) Using API to create a hyperlink in dashboards alert to load a study when clicked by the user ( 3 ) Using relational database with a web service interface for modifying and querying state ( 3 ) Utilizing interoperability standards such as HL7 messaging standards and DICOM to make connections and data exchange among different systems ( 3 , 33 ) Using agents in data models for registering and managing alerts if alerts are to be shown in groups or individual ( 3 ) Designing dashboards in. Net environment because it will result in flexibility, ease and integration with the system ( 31 , 34 ) Utilizing web based interfaces for visualizing information ( 33 ) Displaying graphics using server based web control which is much faster than the client based control ( 34 ) …”

Building a Transnational Biosurveillance Network Using Semantic Web Technologies: Requirements, Design, and Preliminary Evaluation

“…The implementation of the functional features defined in the first four design requirements is described at the technical component level using design pattern [37-39] examples. In contrast, for the last two requirements, which can be quantitatively measured, results are presented using efficiency and effectiveness metrics.…”