EPHI-Developing a use case for incorporating Environmental data into a Population Health management Informatics system

The work to be carried out is in areas of milestone 1 technical work and a market survey, carried out in parallel. Both of these are to be carried out in close engagement with Cerner, with whom it is hoped a successful commercial offer for the EPHI service can eventually be developed. Note that in order to make this project successful, both the milestone 1 technical work and the market survey element were deemed essential, therefore the full £20k funding has been requested for this Pathfinder. The proposed work is described in detail in the attached case for support, but the key steps and how they will inform our understanding are summarized here.

1) Liaising with Cerner to identify a focused, achievable PHM use case using met data. This will direct our work to an appropriate use case.
2) Commissioning a health informatics consultancy to carry out market assessment. This will identify the potential for the EPHI service in the broader health informatics market.
3) Developing data processing methodology needed for environmental data interoperability for integration with synthetic health data in Cerner's Business and Objects Tableau cloud platform which can then be accessed directly by Cerner's analytics tools. This will allow us to see in full detail what technical steps will be required to develop a compatible environmental data service.
4) Small-scale demonstration of integrated data processing architecture for Cerner's system. This will inform us how our approach has been successful and where technical emphasis is needed in the Follow-on fund project.
5) Market survey evaluation: understanding where the EPHI system could be best utilized for health care decision making in specific disease areas. This will help us understand which environmental variables should be integrated first for use in a PHM system.

When this information has been acquired, this will help us develop a Follow-on Fund proposal with a well-targeted scope and sufficient level of technical detail to maximize the impact of the project. It will also highlight ahead of time the key technical and market barriers we will face in the Follow-on project and helps inform on how to best develop routes to market.

Note that in this proposal, globally available GFS met data have been proposed as test data since Cerner has not yet identified the optimal geographic location for the use case. As the work develops through the Follow-on Fund, it is anticipated that UK met and air pollution data will be needed and that at least some of the hospital trusts and environmental data involved will be UK based.

Also note that the engagement with Cerner through this Pathfinder is anticipated to produce an application to the NERC-MRC Improving Health with Environmental Data call. The work in that stream will be research oriented, assessing the health outcome benefits of environmental data in a population health management framework. Further commercial development would then take place through the Follow-on Fund. This Pathfinder proposal is focused on use case development for a future commercial service. However the ideal evolution of EPHI is currently believed to be Pathfinder (2016) to NERC-MRC (2016-2017) to Follow-on Fund (2018).

While many research questions in the area of environment and health are fairly well-defined, the commercial feasibility and potential commercial value of environmental data integration into population health management systems is still highly speculative. An ambitious and well-executed Follow-on Fund project could clearly demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the EPHI service, and through close work with the user of the service, Cerner, and broader stakeholder engagement with healthcare providers, this service could be extremely well positioned to become technologically disruptive and world leading.