How can I collect and use data as part of daily practice and to help influence change and future service development?
Getting started
Ensure you are collecting and using meaningful data:
- Data should be collected and used meaningfully, appropriately and effectively to drive service development and improvement.
- It can also be used to help protect services by demonstrating their impact and, ultimately, can be used to optimise patient care and outcomes.
- The CSP has useful web resources to inspire you to create meaningful data and use data meaningfully.
Consider a combination of the following data collection methods that can demonstrate the impact of your services to the individual patient and the positive impact to your local health systems:
- Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) – for example, Measure Yourself Medical Outcomes Profile (MYMOP) is applicable to any condition.
- Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) – for example, the Friends and Family Test (FFT).
- Condition-specific measures/objective measures (depending on the clinical aims for each patient) – find out more on the CSP's page about outcome and experience measures.
- Population data – it is important to collect data that allows you to map the demographics of patients accessing your service so you can understand if the service has a good level of equity of access and if it is addressing the needs of all groups in your population.
- Governance – ensure that you store data appropriately and that you are complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For example, ensure that any data you share is grouped and anonymised, and let people know you are collecting data and that you will be using it.
Quick wins
Explore how others have achieved success:
- Watch the CSP webinar about how to be a data instigator.
- Follow the top tips to consider what further information you may need to help you evaluate how you and your service use remote consultations.
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