NUS-ISS x NVPC Presents Community Matters: "The Power of Data"

Data is being generated by our organisation processes and systems every day. As we leverage more and more on digital technology, the amount of data that we will be generating would be increasing exponentially. This talk explores the potential of how our social sector could harness the power of data to augment and improve the delivery of value to our clients.

The people that need our support and services are ever increasing, yet resources are ever so scarce. How might we use descriptive and diagnostic analytics to go beyond measuring service outputs to quantify service outcomes, to demonstrate and improve the impact we create for our clients?

An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, it is always best if we could avoid possible unpleasant consequences. Our current conventional practice is to capture and analyse data at the level of interventions, giving us a retrospection of how well we have done. Unfortunately this only gives us insights to the past and a fragmented perspective of those whom we serve. If we hope to use data to drive person-centred care, we will need to start progressing towards consolidating and analysing data organized around our clients as individuals. With this we create possibilities to use predictive and prescriptive analytics to deliver preventive care or initiatives, going beyond our current reactive model to social care.