Passerelle Helps ND DoH Build Case for Flu Shots

Need another reason to get a flu shot? You could save time spent in the hospital, according to initial evidence from Passerelle’s most recent work with the North Dakota Department of Health.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams joins members of the North Dakota Department of Health leadership team, and representatives from Passerelle, Amazon Web Services and Talend to unveil initial findings from their public health dashboard.

Passerelle partnered with Amazon Web Services to create a proof of concept data architecture solution that featured Talend data processing with Databricks machine learning and a visual analytics dashboard from PowerBI. The project enabled North Dakota health professionals to study the impact and burden of those who opt out of the annual flu vaccine. The North Dakota Department of Health hopes to use to results to show how flu vaccinations benefit the population.

North Dakota’s Department of Health leadership team presented initial findings at the Main Street Summit in Bismark, to an audience that included U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. Key points from the presentation highlight one of the impactful tolls the flu can take – comparing the length of stay in the hospital for flu patients who had the flu vaccine and those who did not. In some age demographics, the difference amounted to an extra day and a half in the hospital.

Passerelle’s solution pulled data from the North Dakota Department of Health and Sanford Health – the largest healthcare provider in the state. With access to data from different data silos, health decision makers made correlations that were not previously possible – such as comparing vaccine rates with length of hospital stay.

Passerelle Business Development Director Bruce Ottomano traveled to North Dakota to support the initiative, and to plan next steps for the project.

“The results show that this is a mission accomplished for the proof of concept,” Bruce said. “This project will create insights that are valuable for health leaders, and also significantly improve healthcare and patient outcomes.” The North Dakota Department of Health is now looking at ways to expand the proof of concept to include more data sources and automated data pulls. With better data and informed decision-making, the DoH hopes to significantly increase vaccination participation in the general and elderly populations.

For more information about Passerelle’s work with public health organizations, contact us today.