The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is using analytics technology from SAS to develop public health dashboards for tracking influenza data across the state.

The aim is to unify multiple flu surveillance sources into a central visualisation platform.

North Carolina-based SAS’s deep analytical capabilities also power the dashboard’s predictive models, giving health providers better projections of a disease’s spread.

The flu data visualisations and analytics will be instrumental for DSHS in anticipating regional surges in cases and allocating state resources to the areas with the most testing and vaccination needs while keeping the public informed on their local outbreak risk. With a more accurate and detailed picture of the influenza risk county-by-county, drawn from updated weekly data, DSHS can initiate preventative measures that can mitigate the severity of outbreaks and save more lives across the state.

The dashboards and analytics are powered by SAS Viya, the company’s cloud-based AI, machine learning, analytics and data management platform.

“SAS Viya is a perfect match for public health departments like Texas DSHS that are invested in making data work harder and smarter for government officials and the public,” said Meghan Schaeffer, national public health advisor at SAS. “With a better view of where flu is, and where it’s likely going, Texas health officials can focus on their most important work: keeping Texans healthy.”

A clearer and more digestible representation of data should allow health providers to make informed decisions faster, especially during peak seasons of activity. At the same time, Viya’s ability to unify what has historically been a siloed data aggregation process onto a single dashboard reduces flu data analysis from hours down to minutes. The result is that providers can respond quickly with more influenza testing and vaccinations while accelerating the ability of health stakeholders to identify outbreaks.