A national programme of work is being undertaken across Wales to integrate patient reported outcome measures into palliative care. One such measure is the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale (IPOS). As part of the implementation, consideration is being given to how the data may be visualised and used for aggregate level analysis to inform service delivery.
CEDAR has been developing the visualisations for patient level data dashboards, working with clinicians and DHCW to produce graphs that are achievable with the data, and informative to patient care.
Secondly CEDAR under took an aggregate analysis on a sample dataset from Marie Curie Cardiff and Vale Hospice. CEDAR performed data cleaning using a set of peer-reviewed rules to determined what data could be included, followed by and an adjusted ordinal regression was used within the analysis to identify which population groups responded different to each IPOS elements. As a pilot analysis, there were limitations such as small sample sizes and some factors not being adjusted for, such as social deprivation. The results were presented in an accessible and clear manner in the form of an infographic. The opportunities and challenges of aggregate analysis using real world data from this case study are currently being written up as a manuscript to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.