Other AHCis Software Products for Healthcare

    The following products are also developed and supported by AHC Information Services Ltd.

    Please contact us to check the current availability of each product.

Epidemiological Calculator | Clinical Browser |  HA & Trust MIS

The Epidemiological Calculator The Epidemiological Calculator (ECal) is a software tool which provides a wide range of options for calculating crude and age-standardised rates for various sets of data on disease, mortality or other public health-related topics. Designed originally for use by Public Health Consultants and Analysts, the software is of benefit to anyone who needs to perform routine demographic analyses on Health or other data. ECal was developed using Acuity/ES software and currently uses the OLAP data architecture of this package to maintain its data and perform the multi-dimensional calculations. The basic data requirement is for demographic (population) data with standard age, sex, time period and organisation (HA, LA, PCG etc) dimensions. Any number of data sets can then be standardised using the base population structure, the results being viewed in a multidimensional tabular 'browser'. A choice of calculation types is available including: Crude rates (eg. rates per 100,000 population) Direct age standardised rates - using European Standard population or any population in the organisational dimension as the calculation base. Indirect standardised 'ratios' (eg SMR) standardised to any known population base. Potential Years of Life Lost (mortality data only). In most cases confidence intervals can be calculated along with the rates and the statistical significance level for these is user-definable. In addition, other transformations can be applied to the source data such as merging time periods (ie for 'Moving Average' calculations) or aggregating age-specific data into user-definable age bands. You can execute an analysis across a whole dimension or select any arbitrary subset of a dimension. For example you may only wish to see Euro-Standardised Mortality Rates for a range of male cancers, rather than perform calculations for Persons, Males and Females for all causes of death. Once the analysis is complete, the OLAP browser allows you to manipulate the output dimensions to view the data in any way you wish. Results can be sorted, displayed as charts and (where relevant) maps, or exported to other software packages. ECal is driven by user-friendly dialogues with on-board 'tips' to help you with the choice of options and it is easy to set up a single calculation that will save you anything up to 1 million spreadsheets. Calculation speed is fast and results are usually available within seconds or, at most a few minutes where the analysis is very large. Any dataset can be used with ECal as long as it shares the same demographic dimensions as the population data. Extra dimensions such as cause of death, diagnosis etc can be used depending on the data to be analysed, and the measures (statistics) included are entirely at your discretion. Go Top

The Clinical Browser The Clinical Data Browser (CBrow) is a software tool which is designed to assist Clinicians and others in analysing large volumes of patient data records held in a relational data warehouse. Health Authorities and NHS Trusts would both benefit by using CBrow in conjunction with their local data warehouses. Data such as CDS, or extracts from a PAS or EPR system are maintained in a simple 'star' schema database structure and a series of data dimensions are held within the CBrow dictionary. Once the dimensions have all been defined as part of the CBrow installation procedure, the users can create any number of reports which define which of those dimensions are to be displayed as rows and columns within the tabulated output. Other dimensions can be selected as 'through' dimensions and the report can be re-run over and over again with different combinations of values of the through dimensions. CBrow was developed using Acuity/ES software and currently uses the OLAP data architecture of this package to provide the means of defining, selecting and navigating the dimensions. Each time a report is run, CBrow generates the appropriate SQL instructions, which are then passed to the source database. The data returned by the SQL query is then further aggregated and output within the CBrow table view. Reports can, subject to owner permissions, be edited and re-run with different dimensions and time periods. Where edit permissions are not available, the user can still run the report and can vary the row, column and 'through' dimensions by using familiar 'drag and drop' techniques. Once a tabular output is displayed, it is possible to 'drill-down' to display the underlying patient records which make up any single cell value. For example, should there be a value of 39 patients who are waiting for more than 12 months for admission to hospital, pointing the mouse at the cell containing the value 39 and 'clicking' will run a further query which produces a list of those 39 patients with a variety of variables which are defined within the report. Yet more detail can be displayed by selecting any single patient record (row) from this list and choosing a 'Profile'. The selected patient's details will be displayed in an on-screen form with all demographic and clinical details being translated from database codes to their full textual descriptions. The Clinical Data Browser combines the speed and intuitive 'friendliness' of OLAP-style data navigation with the power of a SQL query tool. End-users will be able to create and run a wide variety of reports in both routine and 'ad-hoc' form and reduce the demand placed on local Information staff for ad-hoc database queries. There is no restriction on the data which can be used by CBrow. As long as the simple database schema style is utilised and the once the display dimensions are defined and mapped to database fields, any patient-level data can be analysed with the same levels of detail being available. A range of charting options is available to add further meaning to the report output, together with other tools to manipulate or export the data or to enhance the report for (eg) printing purposes. You can even save the current screen as an HTML page to publish on your Web-site. AHC Information Services Ltd (AHCis) will install the Clinical Data Browser for you and can assist in building and/or linking the requisite database tables to be analysed.

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Management Information Systems for NHS Health Authorities & Trusts

AHCis can supply and/or develop Management Information Systems for Health Authorities (& Boards) and NHS Trusts.

A range of standard modules is available which can be configured to the specific organisation's requirements. These include:

• Inpatient Clinical Activity Indicators

• Outpatient Clinical Activity Indicators

• Outpatient Referrals

• Readmissions Analysis

• Inpatient & Outpatient Waiting Lists & Times

• Waiting List Target & Guarantee Monitoring

• Clinical Browser (CDS & other patient-level data analysis)

• Finance (Income, Expenditure, Balance Sheet, Cash-Flow) etc

• Human Resources

• Key Performance Indicators

• SLA (Contract) Definition & Monitoring

• GP (Items of Service etc) Payments

• Demography (Population, Mortality, Fertility etc.)

• Other Public Health Information (eg PHCDS)

• Community Nursing & PAMs

• Diagnostic Services (Path/Rad)

Modules are based upon a combination of OLAP and SQL Server data structures with graphical presentation in the form of tables, charts and (where relevant) maps.

All modules support full 'slice-and-dice' and '  data navigation across multiple dimensions. 'Drill-down-and-up' , eg from SHA to PCT to GP Practice and/or Specialty to Consultant is available where the data can support it and, in some cases, 'drill-through' to display details of individual patient or transaction records can also be provided.

AHCis can configure the above modules, tailor them to meet local requirements or develop new modules as required, all at reasonable costs. We will be happy to meet with you to discuss your specific requirements and provide  you with a detailed estimate.

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 Last updated: March 28, 2003