A team from the Complexity Science Hub Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna wants to provide our doctors in private practice throughout Austria with an information system that keeps them informed about the local corona situation on a daily basis. How many positive cases are there in my district? At what rate is this number currently rising or falling? How many other doctors’ surgeries are currently closed (e.g. due to quarantine) in my district? How many more patients should I expect due to these developments? All this information is to be made easily accessible in situation reports on a dashboard, which will also be linked centrally at the Corona Infopoint of the Austrian Society of General Practice (ÖGAM).
To provide such a dashboard, different data sources must be collected and combined. Case numbers at district level are made publicly available and must be stored daily and statistically analysed to estimate robust infection rates over the last few days. Local care densities (number of doctors in the district relative to the number of inhabitants) must be determined for all specialities.
Finally, the dash-board should also provide information on the local vulnerability of the population, i.e. the relative number of elderly patients with risk factors for a severe course of COVID-19. These “risk maps” of vulnerable people are determined by analysing billing data on medication dispensations (e.g. number of people with dispensations of antidiabetics, antihypertensives, etc. in a district). The combination of this information (local case numbers and increase data, supply density and vulnerable population) is summarised in the dashboard in a visual situation report.