Implementation and use of a national electronic dashboard to guide COVID-19 clinical management in Fiji

Problem: From April to September 2021, Fiji experienced a second wave of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) precipitated by
the Delta variant of concern, prompting a need to strengthen existing data management of positive COVID-19 cases.

Context: With COVID-19 cases peaking at 1405 a day and many hospital admissions, the need to develop a better way to
visualize data became clear.

Action: The Fiji Ministry of Health and Medical Services, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs collaborated to develop an online clinical dashboard to support better visualization
of case management data.

Outcome: The dashboard was used across Fiji at national, divisional and local levels for COVID-19 management. At the
national level, it provided real-time reports describing the surge pattern, severity and management of COVID-19 cases across
the country during daily incident management team meetings. At the divisional level, it gave the divisional directors access to
timely information about hospital and community isolation of cases. At the hospital level, the dashboard allowed managers
to monitor trends in isolated cases and the use of oxygen resources.

Discussion: The dashboard replaced previous paper-based reporting of statistics with the delivery of trends and real-time data.
The team that developed the tool were situated in different locations and did not meet physically, demonstrating the ease
of implementing this online tool in a resource-constrained setting. The dashboard is easy to use and could be used in other
Pacific island countries and areas