The Atlas Domain (Area)
Topic Selection
The Atlas is the name given to ‘mapping’ New Zealand’s District Health Boards health and disability services. The Commission is starting to collect information relating to a range of health and disability topics or ‘domains’. Examples of these topic areas can be disease focussed such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. They can also be related to a question about services like maternity, emergency department and surgery.
The idea of the Atlas is to map a topic area alongside each of the 20 District Health Board services, what they offer, how many operations they do in terms of that service, how they differ from each other, and so on. The Atlas might start with a broad topic area such as heart disease; focus on prevention of heart attack after being discharged from hospital; then look to track differences in treatment that are known to influence whether or not a person has another heart attack (such as medication taken to lower blood pressure).
The goal of the Atlas is to understand whether there is regional difference in health services and whether this difference is acceptable because of the make-up and size of the population or not. Highlighting where difference is ‘unacceptable’ suggests areas where practice can be improved. The goal is to stimulate improvement through debate among clinicians as to what practice is ideal.
The Commission is in the early stages of developing this Atlas for New Zealand. We would like to receive your feedback about topics or ‘domains’ of interest that can be developed over time as the Atlas grows.
The Atlas will benefit from the views that consumers have about the topics or domains that should be prioritised.
Here is another example of an area with things to consider looking at:
Broad Area of Health/Disability focus: (e.g. early detection of breast cancer)
Specific Area of Interest: (e.g. does the rate of mammogram use vary around the country? Does this vary according to age group or ethnicity?)
Where is there difference and what is this [if known]? (e.g. women who live rurally report difficultly accessing screening because of transport issues.)
Why is this topic area important: (breast cancer deaths per annum), early diagnosis and timely intervention prevents costly treatment and saves lives
Please indicate which professional group, if any, this submission is being made on behalf of:
______
*Submissions requested to be kept to a maximum of one page.
Please send your submission/s via email to by 5pm, Thursday 22 November 2012.