Literature review

Patient Profiling is an integrates fragmented data into smart health records,

enabling nurse case managers and medical analytic and services staff to focus
on improving member health. This solution draws on the capabilities and power
of advantage suite (Thomson Reuters,2010)

Patient Profiling data will be used to support the World Class Commissioning
Competency five which is ‘Manage knowledge and undertake robust and
regular needs assessments that establish a full understanding of current and
future local health needs & requirements’

One of the key issues was highlighted by the action learning set and these are
set out below, the rest of the paper provides more detail on each of these issues,
concluding with recommendations and practical suggestions that will increase
rates of data collection in primary care.
The feedback loop – Data profiling need to develop long term relationships
with primary care teams which allow the results of ethnic monitoring to be
fed back to the primary care teams collecting the data and demonstrates
to primary care teams the practical benefits of collecting this data. For
example when patient profile data is linked to disease registers, practices
can gain an understanding of the health issues affecting certain
community groups and whether or not they are making appropriate
contact with the practice itself. Patient profile data can also be used in
other useful ways for example, practices can look at DNA (did not attend)
rates of patients and link this to the patient profile data on language
requirements. Patients may not be attending practices due to language
barriers and may need an interpreter. This type of information will help the
GP practice to improve the patient experience.

Using the term patient profiling was seen as a way of facilitating the increased
engagement of primary care teams, as this is perceived to cover more issues
than ethnic monitoring which implies a specific focus on ethnic group only.
Patient profiling can include ethnic group, languages spoken, place of birth,
religion, dietary requirements and if a patient has a disability.

The action learning set agreed that patient profiling was a more useful term when
working with primary care teams than ethnic monitoring.
(
Department of Health, 2007 GP Patient Survey: your doctor, your experience,
your say, (2007)( Evans R, (2007) Why minorities still stand out from the crowd;
The Health Service Journal. Vol 1117, Nu 6067, p12-13) .2011-02-10

Further work needs to be undertaken to ensure that profiling data is passed

forward onto secondary care when a patient is referred for treatment. When
the correct referral forms are used, the data fields are automatically populated
with ethnicity, spoken language and the need for interpreter data. Work is
ongoing to ensure the correct referral forms are used.
(Liverpool Primary Care Trust Patient Profiling Report Update 2010). 2011-02-13

Profiling performance
Physician or provider profiling is an attempt to measure the performance of
doctors and providers of health care by supplying interested parties with
information on the structure, process, and outcomes of health care. Its rationale
is that analysing patterns of care will help to reduce the variation in performance
among doctors and lead to improvements in the quality of health care.

Two main types of profiling are used in the United States. Clinical profiling
examines doctors’ styles of practice by looking at the types of treatment and
services that they use and the outcomes of care. Economic profiling examines
the financial aspects of a doctor’s practice. Researchers in the United States
have now developed many sophisticated tools for profiling physicians. Ideally,
profiling should provide doctors with meaningful information on their clinical
performance to help improve the quality of the services they
provide. However, purchasers have largely developed physician profiling as a
tool to control costs and ensure they are getting value for money, rather than as
a method of measuring and improving the quality of care. Profiling has also been
used for other purposes, including providing information to consumers to help in
their selection of physician and healthcare plan
(BMJ Primary care in the United States Profiling performance in primary care in
the United States Norbert Goldfield, Shamini Gnani, Azeem Majeed)

Demographic profiling is essentially an exercise in making generalizations about

groups of people. As with all such generalizations many individuals within these
groups will not conform to the profile - demographic information is aggregate and
probabilistic information about groups, not about specific individuals. Critics of
demographic profiling argue that such broad-brush generalizations can only offer
such limited insight and that their practical usefulness is debatable. However, if
the conclusions drawn are statistically valid and reproducible, these criticisms are
not as well founded. Most demographic information is also culturally based. And
it may be unfruitful to generalize conclusions more widely as different nations
face different situations and potential challenges. (O'CONNOR, DONAL (2010-
06-11). "Our health-care system about to go 'boom'". The Beacon Herald (Sun
Media). 2011-02-13.