POLAR data tool
Population Level Analysis and Reporting (POLAR) is a free, web-based business intelligence tool for general practice. It extracts data from your practice software to support quality improvement and business development, with the ultimate goal of providing better patient-centred care.
On this page:
About POLAR
POLAR is free to all general practices in the Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network (EMPHN) region. Using data from your clinical and billing software, POLAR can assist your practice to:
- Meet quality improvement requirements under the Practice Incentives Program (PIP QI).
- Identify patient eligibility for health assessments, care plans, team care arrangements and reviews, and mental health treatment plans.
- Recall patients for immunisations, screening tests and other preventative health items.
- Streamline business processes, including practice accreditation, through improved data quality and records.
- Improve patient outcomes.
As part of this free service, you must agree to provide EMPHN with de-identified practice data. This data helps us to identify system gaps and work towards developing better services for the community.
More information on POLAR
POLAR walkthroughs
Read the Outcome Health POLAR FAQs
Getting started
1. Check that POLAR is compatible with your practice software.
| Practice software | Compatible with POLAR |
|---|---|
| Medical Director | Yes |
| Best Practice | Yes |
| Zedmed | Yes |
2. Request POLAR by emailing digitalhealth@emphn.org.au and ask that a POLAR License Agreement be sent to you.
3. You can request a demonstration by contacting the team at digitalhealth@emphn.org.au.
POLAR support
The way practices request POLAR support in the Eastern Melbourne PHN (EMPHN) catchment has changed:
- Practices now no longer contact EMPHN to request POLAR technical support.
- Practices now contact the POLAR software supplier, Outcome Health, by raising a ticket using the Support Portal: https://support.polarexplorer.org.au or using the Email: servicedesk@outcomehealth.org.au.
When contacting Outcome Health by raising a ticket using the Support Portal: https://support.polarexplorer.org.au or using the Email: servicedesk@outcomehealth.org.au a representative from outcome Health will contact you to provide the following technical support:
- Login, data sync errors or system bugs issues
- Platform-specific troubleshooting
- System performance and functionality problems
- Installation or uninstallation of Hummingbird/POLAR requests
What to expect
Support is provided by Outcome Health between 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday (AEST), excluding public holidays.
Expect a response to your enquiry within 24 hours but due to the variability in support tickets, Outcome Health are unable to guarantee a resolution time.
When to contact the EMPHN Digital Health team
EMPHN will continue to:
- Provide on-site or remote training
- Provide POLAR educational resources (such as walkthroughs and how-to guides)
- Process Data and POLAR agreements between EMPHN and the Practice
- Guide practices on how to lodge an enquiry
- Encourage practices to utilise POLAR frequently to assist with quality improvement activities
EMPHN’S Support to General Practice
All EMPHN’s other support services to General Practices remain the same.
If you are unsure about the changes to POLAR support you can contact you Practice Facilitator of one of the Digital Health Facilitators who can provide further advice and helpful resources.
Why the process has changed
This change reflects Outcome Health’s new licensing terms, which are compulsory for all licensees.
Outcome Health will now monitor each POLAR practice’s connection status and contact your practice directly should an issue be detected. EMPHN will also monitor each POLAR practice’s connection within the EMPHN catchment and contact Outcome Health should a practice appear to have technical issues lasting longer than a week. EMPHN will also assist Outcome Health if required, to resolve problems.
EMPHN will receive a monthly report from Outcome Health and will monitor and evaluate the impacts of this new process. We will utilise this information to identify issues that may impact PIP QI submissions.
We appreciate your support as we transition to this new model.
These changes aim to streamline technical support through Outcome Health while allowing EMPHN to focus on training, guidance, usage and escalation where needed.
POLAR training
If you need POLAR training (on site or remotely), EMPHN is available to assist you. Contact EMPHN Digital Health Team by emailing digitalhealth@emphn.org.au.
EMPHN has developed an extensive range of free training resources to help your practice get the most out of POLAR. All videos can be accessed via the EMPHN YouTube channel.
Getting started
Introducing POLAR
How to access POLAR
Managing users in POLAR
Applying filters
Applying filters in POLAR
Applying filters within Excel to sort data
Exporting, formatting and printing POLAR patient lists within Excel
Data management
Education portal and data mapping
Opting patients out of POLAR
Reports
Education portal and data mapping
Opting patients out of POLAR
Introduction to POLAR reports
Cardiovascular Disease
Clinical Indicators
Diabetes Quality Improvement Activities
Health Assessments
Hospitalisation Risk
MBS Care Plans
Practice Incentive Program Quality Improvement (PIP QI)
Hospitalisation Risk (Outcome Health)
Walrus
Walrus is a free point-of-care support tool that can be downloaded from the POLAR program. It can be customised to provide GPs and practice nurses with prompts about missing or incomplete data, including MBS items, PIP QI measures and risk score information.
Walrus introduction video
Walrus setup and use video
Introducing Walrus flyer
Practice Data Quality Report
Reports are sent to all practices quarterly, please contact EMPHN to request a hard copy of your Practice Data Quality Report at: digitalhealth@emphn.org.au. Practices can also request reports for other months if required by emailing digitalhealth@emphn.org.au.
This report demonstrates practice performance against benchmarks, which can lead to better patient outcomes and identification of areas for improvement.
EMPHN Practice Report
MBS Opportunity Report
Puffin supporting Residential Aged Care Visits
Puffin has been added to the POLAR data extraction and analysis platform specifically to support general practices successfully manage requirements of the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive (GPACI).
GPs and practices can easily ensure they comply with GPACI requirements through an interactive dashboard to help track and report on services offered to residents of Aged Care Homes. Puffin also offers methods for GPs to monitor the status of selected vaccinations for older patients.
Introduction to Puffin
More information about Puffin
How to use Puffin
How To: Download a GPACI patient registration list in PRODA
POLAR walkthroughs
POLAR walkthrough documents are short step-by-step guides designed to help you perform common and not so common patient data searches in POLAR.
POLAR walkthroughs
Practice resources
Explore the resources below for more information on implementing POLAR in your practice.
Privacy and security
Data security fact sheet
Download PDF [264.64 kb]
Data Security and Privacy Information
Download PDF [329.1 kb]
Privacy Policy (Outcome Health)
Download PDF [26.58 kb]
Secondary Use of General Practice Data (RACGP)
Download PDF [674.72 kb]
Business and income modelling
Business modelling guide
Download PDF [561.99 kb]
Business modelling spreadsheet (excel)
Download [19.69 kb]
Plan-do-study-act (PDSA) activities can be found on our Quality Improvement (QI) page
