Description:

The MWS is a value-added service closely aligned with the National Health Index. It is designed to warn healthcare providers of the presence of any known risk factors that may be important when making clinical decisions about patient care. The MWS comprises: 1) medical warnings incorporating adverse medical reactions and significant medical conditions, 2) event summaries incorporating identification of the facility where the patient’s medical record is located, 3) donor information incorporating donor summaries and healthcare user contact details.

Additional information:

Have_(encrypted)_NHI Yes
Personally identifiable (e.g. linked to NHI numbers) and longitudinal or aggregated (e.g. for planning, clinical research etc.)? Yes - exists within NHI system (now Health Identity)
Volume of data (e.g. how many records) Since when? 1977 - together with NHI
Purpose and governance including ethics committee/patient consent mechanisms. Q: How do you get around ethics/privacy issues with your data sources? Esp. DHBs? The MWS can be accessed through the NHI, but access to data on the MWS is restricted solely to health and disability support services for use in caring for the individual.
Scope National
Does the data contain diagnoses and clinical outcomes? Does the data contain procedures, device information and medication for therapy? Does this data set have cost / price data? Partially - conditions are included. No financial data
Presence of Data dictionary? Column headings in Excel or any kind of data model if residing in a relational database (e.g. Access, SQL Server, Oracle etc.) http://www.health.govt.nz/publication/medical-warnings-system-data-dictionary
Linked (or linkable) to other datasets within your organisation or across the Sector Yes via NHI and provider IDs
How often does this data set get updated? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Yearly? Real-time
Indication of data quality (e.g. missing values, duplications, inconsistencies etc.). Q: Audits? How do you ensure the data is valid and correct? Poor - not used consistently and widely. Data is mostly unstructured
Brief info about the systems and processes used to collect/manage data. Q: Where the data is collected, in what form, and accessibility? As part of the NHI system
How quickly can the data be made available from time of request and how old is the data once it is made available with appropriate approval very quickly