May round-up of InstantAtlas stories

Welcome to the latest edition of the InstantAtlas blog news – our monthly round-up of projects where InstantAtlas software solutions are used to map and present statistics in interactive dynamic reports and profiles.

In this edition we review two case studies from Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and Warwickshire County Council a forthcoming live webinar from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, plus we introduce a new offering from InstantAtlas called the ‘Report Creation Service’.

Tailored to your needs – The InstantAtlas Report Creation Service

We make no apology for the fact that everyone working for InstantAtlas is excited about what they do – whether it is developing software that helps you to present data in an interactive easy-to-understand way, or helping you get the most from InstantAtlas. So when someone asks us for advice, or help with a project we get a real buzz. With that in mind we thought it would be helpful to explain exactly what we can do for you – especially when you find yourself short on time, resource and budget so you know where to come.

What does InstantAtlas Report Creation Service offer?

The InstantAtlas support team provides a service for anyone who needs a helping hand with report creation with InstantAtlas Desktop. This includes:

• Map data preparation
• Dynamic report publishing
• Report design and branding
• Preparation and loading of statistical data
• Performance tweaks
• Report deployment

Pierre, Head InstantAtlas Support, says: “We can help support with any aspect of report production with InstantAtlas Desktop. Whether it’s filling gaps in a multi-faceted project, or providing report creation throughout from start to finish, we have the experience to help make it a success.”

Learn more

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council

‘Using map presentation software to ensure services are delivered in the most effective way at Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council’ 

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council covers nine towns situated between Manchester and the Peak District. The council places great emphasis on partnership and has a culture of working closely with local organisations.

The council is part of the Tameside Strategic Partnership which brings together a diverse set of partners from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to agree key aims, objectives and priorities for Tameside. The partnership includes the police, health service, Tameside College and Greater Manchester Probation Trust. To help the partnership get a better understanding of local needs, a Partnership Information Portal has been developed.

Getting started

Jody Stewart, Principal Policy Officer, Corporate Performance and Improvement at the council says that for many years it produced a publication called Quality of Life which included selected statistics about the borough. “The challenge was that by the time it was published the statistics were out of date,” says Jody. “So we decided to move towards an online data observatory that would allow people to access up-to-date information on a variety of topics and track this data over time.”

 

Read the full article

Warwickshire County Council

‘Creating dynamic online reports for needs assessment at Warwickshire County Council’

Warwickshire Observatory is the home for information and intelligence about Warwickshire and its people. Its aim is to be a centre of excellence in research, data collection and analysis to support evidence-based policy-making across the public sector in Warwickshire.

The observatory undertakes work for, and in partnership with, a wide range of customers across the county council and other partner organisations. Paul Larcombe is Corporate GIS Manager and he explains that although the observatory has used GIS software in the past, it has only recently developed a local information system (LIS).

“We found that we were getting more queries from the public and it was taking time to find answers so we decided that an LIS would help people find the answers themselves,” he says.

Getting started

The team looked at a range of suppliers but decided to go with interactive map building software from InstantAtas which was bought in tandem with Coventry City Council. A successful funding bid meant the team was able to start building the LIS and this also covered the purchase of OCSI data packs.

“The LIS is a still a work in progress but the focus to date has been on desktop dynamic reports and we have a range of live content supporting the JSNA (Joint Strategic Needs Assessment),” says Paul.

Read the full article

Forthcoming North American Public Health Webinar with Charles J. Utermohle, PhD

Our latest North American public health webinar in June will be presented by Charlies J. Utermohle, Data Analyst, Division of Public Health, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. Charles works in the Section of Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion within the Alaska Division of Public Health. His responsibilities include statistical analysis of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for adults and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System for middle and high school students.

Webinar Topic
‘Automating InstantAtlas production using Access Data Manager’

In the webinar Charles will discuss how the InstantAtlas Access Data Manager can be used to prepare large datasets using the example of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

Charles’ presentation will focus how Access Data Manager can be used with any dataset where there are too many variables to be efficiently handled in the Excel Data Manager.

Learn more about this webinar

InstantAtlas Essentials #26

‘Changing Visibility of Components Depending on Indicator Selection in HTML reports’

In this video we describe how to change the visibility of components on an indicator basis for HTML reports. This video compliments our Support document ‘How to Change the Visibility of Components Depending on Indicator Selection in InstantAtlas Reports’ which can be found in the Desktop Support area of My InstantAtlas.

YouTube version

InstantAtlas dedicated streaming server version

New InstantAtlas Essentials tutorial released – No. 26 ‘How to Change the Visibility of Components Depending on Indicator Selection in InstantAtlas HTML Reports’

Welcome to another InstantAtlas Essentials video for IA customers.

In this video Sara Fuller of the InstantAtlas support team describes how to change the visibility of components on an indicator basis for HTML reports. This video compliments the Support document ‘How to Change the Visibility of Components Depending on Indicator Selection in InstantAtlas Reports’, which can be found in the Desktop Support area of My InstantAtlas.

Click here to see Sara’s video tutorial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JlYGvJ7YrQ&list=PL20D212C2D15B7907&index=26

If you cannot watch videos on YouTube then please click here to see the InstantAtlas Essentials tutorials on our video server.

New customer webinar recording released, presented by Marie Curie Cancer Care and Diabetes UK

Webinar Topic - ‘Find out how Diabetes UK and Marie Curie Cancer Care are using interactive mapping and profiling tools to report incidence rates and help healthcare commissioners make informed decisions’

Presented by Gavin Terry, Healthcare Policy Manager, Diabetes UK & Emily Garside, Service Developer, Analytics, Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Gavin and Emily explain how InstantAtlas is helping their organisations present incidence rates to internal and external stakeholders.

Emily demonstrates Marie Curie’s ‘End of Life Care Atlas’ which was developed using InstantAtlas Desktop. The Atlas gives commissioners of end-of-life care an insight into care provision at local level. Emily’s presentation provides an overview of why the charity needed the Atlas, how it was developed and the benefits it brings to users.

Gavin presents the Diabetes UK’s new online reporting tool ‘Diabetes Watch’ which is powered by InstantAtlas Server. Which uses nationally available diabetes data to highlight gaps in the provision of diabetes care across the United Kingdom.

Links to the webinar recording

YouTube version – click here 

Hosted on the InstantAtlas video server – click here

April round-up of InstantAtlas stories

Welcome to the latest edition of the InstantAtlas blog news – our monthly round-up of projects where InstantAtlas software solutions are used to map and present statistics in interactive dynamic reports and profiles.

In this edition we review two case studies from Diabetes UK and New Zealand’s Health Quality & Safety Commission, plus we have two new ‘InstantAtlas Essentials’ videos for you to watch.

Diabetes UK

Helping people with Diabetes ensure they are getting appropriate levels of care with an interactive online reporting tool

Diabetes UK is a charity that cares for, connects with and campaigns on behalf of every person affected by or at risk of diabetes. There are currently 3.8 million people in the UK with diabetes, including an estimated 850,000 people who have Type 2 diabetes but do not know it. The charity is committed to ensuring that people with diabetes receive high-quality care wherever they live, and that they know what care to expect.

The charity says getting all the checks, seeing the right healthcare professionals and understanding diabetes are vital in supporting the best possible self-management. To help people with diabetes see how local services are measuring up the charity has compiled a checklist of 15 healthcare essentials that should be provided in each local area. This campaign is part of an initiative called Diabetes Watch and aims to shine a light on the very best services, identifying examples of excellent care, and identify those areas where more needs to be done.

Read the full article

New Zealand’s Health Quality & Safety Commission

How interactive mapping software is being used by New Zealand’s Health Quality & Safety Commission

New Zealand’s Health Quality & Safety Commission (HQSC) was set up to ensure all New Zealanders get the best health and disability care within available resources. Its role is wide ranging and includes: providing advice to the Minister of Health on how quality and safety in health and disability support services may be improved; leading and coordinating improvements in safety and quality in health care; identifying key health and safety indicators (such as events resulting in injury or death) to inform and monitor improvements in safety and quality and reporting on safety and quality, including performance against national indicators.

Catherine Gerard is a Senior Analyst in Health Quality and Evaluation at HQSC. She works with Richard Hamblin on the New Zealand Atlas of Healthcare Variation and also on developing quality and safety measures.

Read the full article

InstantAtlas Essentials #24

‘Embedding Individual Report Components for HTML Edition Reports’

In this video we will show you how quick and easy it is to embed single HTML report components into web pages. This video compliments the HTML section of our support article ‘Embedding InstantAtlas Reports into Web Pages’ which can be found in the Desktop Support area of My InstantAtlas.

YouTube version

InstantAtlas dedicated streaming server version

InstantAtlas Essentials #25

‘How to automatically redirect users to Flash Equivalent InstantAtlas Dynamic Reports for HTML5 Incompatible Browsers’

In this video we will explain the issues surrounding our Flash and HTML5 Edition templates in relation to browser compatibility and how to automatically redirect users from an HTML5 dynamic report viewed in an incompatible browser to an equivalent Flash dynamic report.

YouTube version

InstantAtlas dedicated streaming server version

Monthly round-up of InstantAtlas stories

Welcome to the latest edition of the InstantAtlas blog news – our monthly round-up of projects where InstantAtlas software solutions are used to map and present statistics in interactive dynamic reports and profiles.

In this edition we review three case studies from Marie Curie Cancer Care, London Borough Richmond-upon-Thames and The Health Service Journal.

‘Marie Curie Cancer Care’s interactive atlas helps present a nationwide picture of end of life care in the UK’

Marie Curie Cancer Care provides expert care to people with terminal illness at home and in its hospices. Marie Curie has extensive experience in service design; redesigning services to deliver an integrated end of life pathway. The charity is also a leader in end of life care research.

Marie Curie’s End of Life Care Atlas was developed with the aim of providing healthcare commissioners with a detailed insight into end of life care in their local areas. Michael Cooke, Head of Analytics at Marie Curie explained: “We wanted to use online mapping software to bring together a broad range of data on end of life care across the UK’s health landscape.”

Read more >>>

‘Putting web-based mapping software at the heart of Richmond upon Thames’ local information system’

The London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames in south west London has a strategic partnership with a number of organisations including: the Children and Young People’s Trust, the local Health and Wellbeing Board, the police and Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust. The council decided that it needed to ensure that all partners had access to a central, consistent evidence base so that each could get a better understanding of need in the borough.

Read more >>>

‘How an interactive atlas created using web-based mapping software became one of the Health Service Journal’s top reads of 2012′

The Health Service Journal is the UK’s most widely-read trade publications for managers in the health sector. It is a well-respected publication and was awarded Medical Publication of the Year 2012. The HSJ editorial team is always on the look-out for ways to drive traffic to its website and has created a Resource Centre for readers who want to find answers and guidance on a wide range of topics. With changes to the structure of the NHS in England, the HSJ felt that it should provide an interactive map of the new Clinical Commissioning Group areas.

Read more >>>

Share your knowledge, work and learn from other data experts at the InstantAtlas UK Data Workshops

The 2013 InstantAtlas Data Workshops (IADW) offer a mix of presentation and open discussion giving delegates the opportunity to share ideas and challenges they face. Each workshop programme also features some great examples of how InstantAtlas products have been used by established users to create market-leading applications.

Find out more today

Past events – See 2012 User Conference 

Discover how the Bureau of Health Systems Development at the Arizona Department of Health Services serves the health needs of Arizonians with its new online tool – The Designation Mapper

InstantAtlas North American Public Health Webinar

Click here for details

Centro’s use of interactive mapping software and how it has created an evidence base to support spending decisions

Read the full article

 

Healthcare planning in Denmark and how The North Denmark Region is using interactive mapping to help municipalities understand local variation

 

This article has been moved – please click here

Christmas wishes from all of the InstantAtlas team!

Welcome to the InstantAtlas Christmas message.

Regular readers will know we travel the world to bring you case studies showing how InstantAtlas is being used to visualize data. We come across many different cultures on our travels and as we approach Christmas we thought you might like to know how the festive season is celebrated across the globe. We have highlighted some examples of where InstantAtlas is being used. If your country is not included and you would like to see it in next year’s Christmas Bulletin, you know what to do – simply tell us how you are using our software to visualize, or present data.

Find out a little more about how the Holiday season is celebrated in other countries around the world.

Find out more here >>

 

How the Doctoral Institute for Evidence Based Policy in Japan is meeting customer needs through customized data visualization

This article has been moved – please click here

How Team Bury is using data visualisation with time series analysis from Bury Insight

Background

Bury Insight is the Bury statistics and maps website which is funded by Bury Council. It is a shared evidence base that provides quick and easy on-line access to data, information, and intelligence about the borough of Bury, and aims to meet the needs of the local community, Team Bury (the local strategic partnership) and the general public.

Team Bury partners, including Bury Council, collect a wide range of data including unemployment, housing and health. The site also uses OCSI data packs which means that in all it compiles around 10,000 individual datasets.

Getting started
Scott Abotorabi, Improvement Officer at Bury Council, who helped lead the project to develop the Bury Insight, website says: “We previously had a series of static maps, which on their own they lacked context and it wasn’t easy to view trends over time. By presenting the data in a series of interactive reports we felt we could help more people understand the data.”

Read the full article