Table 1 Summary of the key features healthcare dashboards and toolkits should incorporate according to our prior literature review and our survey of healthcare professionals
Feature category | Examples |
|---|---|
Access | minimising workload burden, e.g.: • easily digested summaries (s) • integrated into an already existing system / constantly in sight • registration absent or clear and short engaging homepage with clear statement of value real-time access e.g. during clinics access to the raw data (s) |
Flexibility and individualisation | personalisation features alerts and reminders information pins dynamic movement of elements of the dashboard to fit around the user’s focus and workflow ensure reactive to different devices layout logic and route that anticipates the user’s workflow a combination on one computer screen of high-level overviews to highlight problem areas and benchmarks of regional and national performance of choice (s) the potential to upload and incorporate their own quantitative data (s) |
Use of images and videos | informative rather than decorative images, that reflect the user’s demographic profile videos to instruct on how to use the dashboard |
Chart types | line and bar charts – well labelled- for analysing relationships, tables for extracting specific values and complex tasks; function to choose graphic type or table including reference data points such as national averages for easier interpretation several graphs on one screen |
Data interrogation | ability to filter the data in real-time and to sort it by any level and quality indicator; filter parameters need to be practical and clearly defined and aligned with the user’s work feedback that the page has changed after filtering search box for interrogating the data / drop-down list or dictionary of suggested search terms |
Print and export | the option to print information, download data outputs |
Community features | patient stories and other narrative videos forum, chat room or similar community feature signposting to other sources of information and support |
Governance | security and privacy prioritised good data reliability (s) |
Offering recommendations and solutions | highlighting problems, but also offering recommendations or solutions a simple predictive tool (s) |