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Background Enhancing injury prevention and developing effective policies relies on the availability of population-level injury incidence statistics. Swift access to this information is paramount for policymakers, ensuring that the data is presented in a way that facilitates easy interpretation and underpins evidence-based decision-making. The Injury Atlas presents de-identified data on hospital-treated unintentional injuries, provided to the Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit by the Victorian Department of Health. The information is sourced from the Victorian Admitted Episode Dataset (VAED). Objective This valuable resource is accessible to government departments, organizations at various levels, health and injury prevention entities, media outlets, businesses, educational institutions, research groups, and the community. This study highlights the use of web-based interactive tools for disseminating injury information focused on the usage of the Injury Atlas of Victoria. Methods The primary function of the tool is to filter the injury dataset based on the year of admission, age group, and injury-cause categories (such as falls, transport incidents, and burns), presenting the information through choropleth maps. The tool also has the capability to generate graphs and charts based on demographic categories and injury characteristics (e.g., sex, age group, and type of injury) for the entire Victoria region or selected Local Government Areas (LGA). Results Introduced in mid-November 2019, the injury atlas has attracted nearly 3,400 users in over 5,000 sessions, predominantly from Australia. Despite not having a vast target audience, the tool has seen substantial engagement compared to other interactive platforms offering a broader range of activities. Moreover, through the portal, over 25 separate data requests were received, underscoring a demand for additional information that the current tool may not fully address. It is also evident that, over the years, utilization has increased with the demonstration and awareness of the tool within the specific target audience. Conclusions This study shed light on the utilization of a web-based interactive tool designed for easy and timely access of injury information. The tool serves as a valuable platform where users can access easily interpretable data to support evidence-based decision-making.
Singh et al. (Fri,) studied this question.