My agency is interested in knowing more about the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch® (IAED)™ Data Center. I’ve also heard about Academy Analytics (Powered by FirstWatch), and I’m not sure what the difference is between that and the IAED Data Center Analytics. Can you explain that?
The IAED Data Center
The International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (the Academy) established a Data Center Project to enable emergency dispatch agencies to seamlessly share (through an app called Fusion) a copy of their ProQA® data. This data supports the IAED’s research efforts and helps the Academy promote evidence-based dispatch practice and the emergency dispatch profession. The Data Center is both General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant. This project started more than 15 years ago and was enhanced in 2018 to provide more sophisticated analytics reports via public and private dashboards. The current version of the Data Center Dashboards was developed using Microsoft Power BI tools.
The IAED Data Center Analytics vs. Academy Analytics (Powered by FirstWatch)
We hope this explanation will help to demystify the confusion between IAED Data Center Analytics and Academy Analytics.
The IAED Data Center Analytics provide reports primarily based on de-identified and aggregated longitudinal/historical ProQA datasets transmitted to the IAED Data Center at specified intervals. These reports are purely to support research studies. They are not real-time reports. This project is managed by a team in the IAED’s Academics, Research, and Communications (ARC) Research Division.
Academy Analytics (Powered by FirstWatch) is a service that receives a copy of ProQA data through the IAED Data Center app and then provides real time agency-specific reports using your ProQA dataset. These reports drill down to the case and operator level. This service is managed by FirstWatch in collaboration with Priority Dispatch Corp.™ Academy Analytics has the capability of being integrated with other data sources such as electronic patient care reports (ePCR), computer-aided dispatch (CAD) datasets, etc.
I’m also wondering how the IAED Data Center began, what benefits our agency would receive if we signed up to participate, how other agencies are using the analytics reports provided on the Data Center dashboards, what types of country/state dashboards are available, and who has access to our data. We want to make sure our data is secure.
Data is the backbone of research. Years before the establishment of the IAED Data Center, the Research Division used to solicit data from select agencies, primary within North America. This process required long periods of time to acquire the data, conduct our studies, and eventually publish scientific papers in research journals.
Additionally, because of GDPR data access restrictions, it became an arduous task to involve our international collaborators in our research studies, in terms of data sharing. These restrictions were (and sometimes still are) encountered within North America as well. However, the Data Center has enabled the collection of data to be more straightforward—including from our international collaborators—and that’s aided in the Research Division’s efforts in conducting studies and publishing scientific papers quickly and cost-effectively.
Dashboard benefits and access
As an incentive to assist the Academy, the Research Division provides agencies with analytics reports that have proven very useful in enhancing agencies’ dispatching processes. After signing up to participate with the Data Center, your agency will have access to two types of analytics reports, implemented using standardized templates:
1. Benchmarking analytics reports dashboards (public)
These analytics dashboards are based on overall aggregated and de-identified data from all agencies participating in the Data Center. They are publicly available to any person/agency for benchmarking purposes—irrespective of whether you participate or not. We have detailed documentation available for your reference regarding data sharing policies (Academy Data Center Data Protection Policy), the Data Center app (IAED Data Center App Quick Facts), and
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). You can access the dashboards and additional information.
2. Agency-specific analytics reports dashboards (private)
These analytics dashboards are similar to the benchmarking analytics dashboards above but are based on an agency’s own data. They are private and only for your agency to see.
Analytics reports usage
Agencies have reported using the reports from the Data Center for:
• QA assessment
• Benchmarking
• Configuring responses
• Adjusting staffing levels
• Implementing community outreach
• Providing monthly reports to top management
• Making data-driven decisions based on evidence and analytics
Further details can be found on the IAED Data Center Analytics and Insights poster from NAVIGATOR 2024:
aedrjournal.org/iaed-data-center-analytics-and-insights
Future enhancements
The IAED Data Center team is currently working on new platforms that will enable users to view analytics reports by countries and/or regions. Additionally, agencies will be able to securely share their private dashboards with stakeholders/collaborators of their choice. Once the development of these features is completed, users will be informed.
If we choose to move forward once you’ve answered my questions, how can my agency get set up on the IAED Data Center?
Signing up with the Data Center takes just a few minutes. We need the name and contact info of the person who will work with our Software Support team to get the Data Center app set up on your ProQA Xlerator® server. Please send this information to: Academy.ResearchData@emergencydispatch.org
Once your ProQA data begins to flow into the Data Center, an IAED data analyst will furnish you with pertinent information regarding how to access your agency’s private analytics dashboards. We hope you see the value in participating with the IAED Data Center and look forward to hearing from you soon.
From Jeff Clawson, M.D.:
The Data Center was a central goal of the Academy, born from the initial idea that dispatch needed to have a Bell Labs of Medical Dispatch in the late 1980s. The ability to study all things dispatch-related must be based on large amounts of data—especially reliable data that comes from highly compliant use of the protocols (often from ACEs). We now are approaching 70 million ProQA cases coming from all three disciplines—more from Medical, but with Fire and Police accumulating fast—helping us do more scientific research on disciplines that have had virtually none done in the real world.
We now have the Bell Labs of Emergency Dispatch and that will pay untold dividends to the dispatch world. There is nothing remotely like what we have here now. May I say, “Data is the alphabet of Science.”
Onward through the fog from that alphabet soup! … Doc
