Two teams of data analysts – who respectively developed an algorithm to improve kidney transplant matching and a ‘guardian angel’ web-app for nurses – are joint winners of our first ever Florence Nightingale Award for Excellence in Healthcare Data Analytics.
The award, named after the celebrated nurse and statistician born 200 years ago this year, celebrates data analyst teams in the health and care sector whose work demonstrably delivers better outcomes for patients. It’s presented by the Royal Statistical Society and supported by the Health Foundation, an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK.
'Now, more than ever, data analysts play a crucial role in understanding health data for the benefit of patients, health services and national policymaking, said RSS President, Professor Deborah Ashby. 'Florence Nightingale was the Society’s first female member, so it seems fitting to honour her contribution to statistics with this award. I would like to congratulate the winners and those commended for their amazing work, which is doing so much to improve health outcomes for everyone.'
Adam Steventon, director of data analytics at the Health Foundation, said: 'It’s fantastic to see these concrete examples of how patient data can be used to make a tangible difference to people’s care. By paying careful attention to health inequalities and sharing their code, the winners are helping to improve health care for everyone and providing a model for others to follow. The NHS and its patients need more projects like these to help tackle the challenging times we are facing and into the future. Analysts are working tirelessly to respond to the pandemic, but the teams working in health and social care are often missing the data, tools and resources they need.'
The 2020 joint winners are as follows:
Winner: NHS Blood and Transplant, Creation of a patient-specific kidney transplant allocation scheme for deceased donor kidneys in the UK
This team developed an algorithm to determine allocation of kidneys from deceased organ donors to patients on the UK kidney transplant waiting list. The judging panel considered this project outstanding in its consideration of equitable allocation of donor kidneys to different cohorts of patients, establishing a UK-wide impact. An initial review found that this project increased transplant rates for groups that historically wait longer for transplants, including ‘difficult to match’ patients and patients in ethnic minority groups. Through the effective application of analysis, the project has been able to address inequality in access to kidney transplants in the UK and seeks to improve patient and graft survival.
Read a Q&A with Lisa Mumford from the team.
Winner: Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust & The Alan Turing Institute, Personalised medicine triage app for emergency departments using artificial intelligence technologies
This team developed a web-app that acts as a “guardian angel” to assist nurses when triaging during those first crucial moments of the arrival of a patient in an emergency department. The judging panel were impressed with this projects’ innovative application of analytics and were pleased that the project team published their code. Through the successful delivery of this tool, the team ably demonstrate the value of quality analysis when coupled with clinical buy-in, as well as the importance of adopting an open approach to analytics.
Read a Q&A with Nick Haliasos from the team.
Commendations:
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust , Visual Management of Patient Movement for Quality Improvement
The judging panel were impressed at this use of analytics in a novel setting to improve outcomes in their portering team, bringing about clear benefits for patients and also efficiency savings.
Public Health Scotland, Transforming official statistics on health and care in Scotland
The judging panel commend this project for their focus on the availability of data and information to both patients and the public.
Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, RADAR and The RCHT Information & Business Intelligence Team
The judging panel congratulate this team for demonstrating the value of analysis and importance of developing actionable insights for clinicians and managers across a variety of departments, through their web-based business intelligence tool.