New Template BI Tools to Support COVID-19 Response

We know how critical it is for COVID-19 data to be immediately available and actionable. In order for governments and organizations to provide effective, targeted COVID-19 efforts, they must be data-driven. 

To help our partners rapidly set up their COVID-19 data pipelines, Dimagi is developing template dashboards across our partners’ most common BI tools that can be easily connected via CommCare’s built-in integration features.

Following the release of the template FFX COVID-19 application, we created downloadable template dashboards for Excel, Tableau, and Power BI. These dashboards are meant to serve as starting points for organizations to make use of their COVID-19 CommCare data. CommCare data can be fed into these tools either by leveraging CommCare’s integration features or using manually produced data exports. 

Excel 

As part of the WHO FFX template package, we created a template Excel Dashboard to be downloaded and used by any organizations deploying the WHO FFX app.

The Excel dashboard summarizes the current status of cases who are confirmed or suspected, as well as reported hospitalizations, recoveries, and deaths. It also displays trends over time for total cases and daily new cases and reports on adherence to the FFX protocol for case follow-up. 

This is just a sample of the kind of information you can extract from your FFX template app. See the indicator and report descriptions on this page, and get inspired to grow and customize your dashboard to best meet your team’s needs.

If you are on a Standard CommCare subscription or higher, you can use CommCare’s Excel dashboard integration to automatically sync CommCare data to excel. If you’re on a Community plan, you can still use this dashboard and paste in your data from your CommCare case export. Find the instructions for your configuration steps here.

Power BI

We also developed a template Power BI dashboard for the WHO FFX template app based on the same set of core indicators. 

The Power BI dashboard reports on the same core indicators as the Excel dashboard, including current case status and trends over time, but it leverages some of Power BI’s more advanced features, such as interactive maps based on the case GPS data. See the indicator and report descriptions on this page.

If you are on an Advanced CommCare subscription or higher, you can use CommCare’s Odata feed integration to automatically sync CommCare data to your Power BI dashboard. If you’re on a Community plan, you can still use this dashboard and use a manually downloaded CommCare data export as your data source. Find the instructions for your configuration steps here.

Tableau

We’ve also released a Tableau version of the template WHO FFX dashboard, which can be accessed via our Tableau Public page.

The Tableau dashboard has the same reports as the Power BI dashboard, plus some additional reporting on death rates by age group and testing, all of which can be produced from the FFX template app data. See the indicator and report descriptions on this page.

CommCare’s integration options for Tableau are the same as Power BI: You can automatically integrate on an Advanced plan or higher, or use Excel exports if on the Community Plan. Find the instructions for your configuration steps here.

As we continue to develop our template toolkit, we will maintain the latest template information on our Data for COVID-19 page.

BI in Action: Togo Ministry of Health Dashboard

Our template dashboards benefit from a strong feedback loop with our partners. Their development both heavily influences and is influenced by our work with organizations deploying our COVID-19 response tools.

Since March, Dimagi has been supporting the Togolese government in its COVID-19 response efforts. Dimagi adapted the WHO FFX contact tracing template application to Togo’s context and developed a Tableau dashboard reporting on critical COVID-19 indicators. 

Within a week we were able to stand up a dashboard displaying the Togo Ministry’s priority indicators around total case counts, trends in cases over time, and geographic spread of suspected and confirmed cases within Togo.

The development of Togo’s dashboard led to the creation of our Tableau template dashboard highlighted above. Thanks to this groundwork with the Togo Ministry, the template Tableau dashboard is now available to other programs for rapid adoption to make immediate use of their COVID-19 data. 


Contact us for support

Want to learn more about Dimagi’s COVID-19 BI work? Reach out to covid19@dimagi.com.

Have a question about configuring your dashboard? Try reaching out to our COVID-19 user forum, and we’ll follow up to ensure you get the most out of your COVID-19 data.

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