Client story Insight helps ACT Health enhance health outcomes and operational efficiency with Microsoft Fabric

Facts at a glance

Client industry

Public Sector/Health

Challenge

As the ACT Government’s central agency responsible for public health policy, planning, and oversight, ACT Health encountered fragmented data environments that hindered efficient operations. Recognising that its data infrastructure was no longer fit for purpose, the organisation needed a unified platform to consolidate data assets, improve governance, and enable faster, more accurate reporting to better serve the territory’s health system. 

Solution

ACT Health launched a proof of value initiative for Microsoft Fabric, focused on a high impact use case: the Emergency Surgery Waiting List (ESWL) Data Product. ESWL data tracks and reports on the waiting times for elective surgeries in public hospitals across Australia. The platform was designed with modularity in mind for faster innovation and scalable growth by allowing teams to independently build, maintain, and enhance key components without disrupting the entire system; all while maintaining a shared governance framework. 

Results

• Query times reduced from 45 minutes to 1 minute.
• Streamlined Commonwealth funding submissions with improved accuracy
• Data reconciliation automated with metadata frameworks and lineage tracking
• Blueprint established for broader adoption across ACT Government's digital services  

Area of expertise

Insight's Data & AI solutions transform your data into meaninful solutions.

Download the client story

ACT Health is the ACT Government’s central agency for public health policy, planning and oversight. It is responsible for shaping the strategic direction of the territory’s health system, developing and implementing health policy, and ensuring that services delivered by affiliated providers are safe, effective and aligned with national standards.

Over the past decade, ACT Health has made significant investments in digital innovation, including the rollout of Epic as its Digital Health Record system. However, while front-end systems evolved, the underlying data environments have been fragmented. 

ACT Health recognised that its data infrastructure was no longer fit for purpose. The organisation needed a modern, unified platform to consolidate its data assets, improve governance and enable faster, more accurate reporting. 

"When Microsoft signalled its strategic focus on Fabric, we evaluated its potential for ACT Health and Canberra Health Services. It quickly became clear that Fabric offered a compelling opportunity to overcome the challenges of fragmented legacy systems and siloed data. As a unified, secure, and scalable platform, Fabric seamlessly integrates with our existing Microsoft environment and is well-positioned to support our analytics and AI ambitions."

Holger Kaufmann, CIO and Executive Group Manager Digital Solutions, ACT Health

Proving the platform’s value using a critical dataset 

In September 2024, ACT Health launched a proof of value initiative for Microsoft Fabric, focused on a high impact use case: the Emergency Surgery Waiting List (ESWL) Data Product. ESWL data tracks and reports on the waiting times for elective surgeries in public hospitals across Australia. Its purpose is to monitor hospital performance, inform policy decisions, and ensure transparency in the healthcare system. By highlighting wait times and disparities, it helps improve accountability, supports better resource planning, and promotes equity in patient access to surgery.

Insight Enterprises were selected as preferred vendor to augment ACT Health’s Data Platform team, with expert advice and Microsoft connections, working side-by-side with internal teams to design and configure Fabric with templated and automated data pipelines in just three months.  

"ACT Health’s adoption of Microsoft Fabric to support its Emergency Surgery Waiting List use case is a powerful example of how technology can drive real innovation in healthcare. This initiative not only reflects a bold vision for data transformation but also underscores the tangible impact technology can have on improving outcomes for patients and communities. We are excited to see how Fabric will continue to enhance ACT Health’s data capabilities at scale and deliver meaningful results."

Veli-Matti Vanamo, APAC CTO, Insight

The templates included pre-configured notebooks, logging frameworks and metadata capture mechanisms, and a Python framework for data transformation. 

The platform was designed with modularity in mind for faster innovation and scalable growth by allowing teams to independently build, maintain, and enhance key components without disrupting the entire system; all while maintaining a shared governance framework. Within this architecture, sensitive data can be isolated in a secure, centralised workspace with tiered access controls to reduce the risk of unauthorised exposure. 

Knowledge transfer was a priority throughout the engagement. Insight provided extensive hands-on training and support to relevant ACT Health personnel, increasing user confidence in and adoption of the new solution.  

"The collaboration with Insight was like having an extension of our team with the subject matter experts we needed. We had daily stand-ups and worked closely on iteration planning and DevOps. They were very open with their documentation and facilitated lots of shadowing to help educate and guide our people. Their expertise and support were critical to our success "

Bill Williamson, Data Platform Architect, ACT Health

Scaling up the data solution following initial success 

Microsoft Purview data governance features are being tested including a shared data catalog, metadata management, automated data lineage, data quality scores and access controls. Other data governance features planned for testing include data classification and expanding data monitoring across the broader data ecosystem. 

The next phase of Fabric establishment will focus on self-service data analytics workspaces, enabling reporting and analytics teams to use these trusted data assets to explore data, generate automated reports and monitor quality.  

There is also a broader strategic opportunity. With the ACT Government planning to consolidate digital services under a new Digital Canberra directorate, ACT Health’s experience could serve as a blueprint for other agencies across the territory and beyond. Fabric’s modular architecture, governance model and proven outcomes make it a compelling candidate for adoption, so long as the change is managed effectively. 

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