The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge district health unit (HKPR) has launched a new public information portal providing updates on past and current health trends.
The new virtual dashboard offers an in-depth look at all recently-recorded public health data, enabling HKPR, community partners, and the public to identify areas of concern, implement targeted interventions, and develop new programs and services, said Dr. Natalie Bocking, local medical officer of health.
New user-friendly dashboards have been launched on the HKPR website, exploring local data on various public health indicators, including chronic diseases, infectious diseases, injuries, mortality, and information from the 2021 Census.
Bocking noted the dashboards can be filtered to show individual statistics for Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton County, and Northumberland County – and can also be compared to provincial averages.
“Our public health data dashboards are not only beneficial for municipal leaders, community partners and residents, but will also help us redefine and better inform our public health approach in the future,” Bocking said.
She added, “this is a significant step in public health… we now have a whole suite of community health dashboards that are providing invaluable data so we can better control the spread of illness and monitor emerging health trends.”
Through the ‘census profile’ interface people can explore data from Statistics Canada, including population trends, number of families, dwellings and households in a community, types of incomes, first language spoken, education and employment history, to identify social pressures and how, and where, people are struggling.
A ‘chronic diseases’ dashboard compiles data from local emergency department visits and hospitalizations for ailments such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory issues.
An ‘infectious diseases’ portal looks at the number of lab-confirmed cases for 75 infectious diseases, including reportable respiratory, sexually transmitted/blood borne, vaccine-preventable and vector-borne diseases. People can also find information on the number of outbreaks declared in highestrisk settings, similarly to what was seen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
There’s also an ‘injury profile’ dashboard that updates on the number and rate of emergency department visits and hospitalizations due to things like falls, sports and recreation injuries, poisonings, car or other transportationrelated incidents. A ‘mortality profile’ section provides information on deaths across HKPR, with categories for premature, avoidable, and cancer-specific fatalities.
Bocking said the health unit will continue to report community outbreaks and opioid overdose-related information through the new dashboards. She anticipates launching additional sections in the fall, centred on respiratory infections and opioid overdoses, along with a new mental health data dashboard.
The portals can be accessed at hkpr.on.ca/ data.
