Compiled by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, the atlas presents a clear picture of substantial variation in health care use across Australia, across areas such as antibiotic prescribing, surgical, mental health and diagnostic services.
An easy-to-use interactive version of the atlas is now available, making it easier than ever to see results for specific areas and how they compare nationally.
Atlas Advisory Group Chair Professor Anne Duggan said the atlas was an invaluable source of information and a catalyst for action aimed at improving people’s health care and outcomes across Australia.
“The new interactive version of the atlas gives us the opportunity to really interrogate the detail of the data in the atlas, with pop-ups that show local area information, graphs and figures,” Professor Duggan said.
“Maps in the online interactive atlas provide overlays of Primary Health Network and Local Hospital Network boundaries, and you can manipulate the maps, zoom in and out, move across the maps and explore the data behind them in a variety of ways.”
Professor Duggan said the online interactive atlas would prove an invaluable tool for health managers, clinicians, academics and others focused on quality improvement efforts, as they could study the variation documented in the atlas and apply that information to improving the appropriateness of care for populations and individuals in Australia.
The online interactive atlas provides users with a platform to interact and engage with the content and data in the atlas and makes data available in easy-to-download formats. It provides access to the full content of the original published version, launched in November 2015.
To use the online interactive atlas, visit: www.safetyandquality.gov.au/atlas