Friday, June 24, 2016

Translating Data & Research to Policy & Practice: HealthLandscape Mapping Tools & Geospatial Analysis

This Saturday I’ll have the opportunity to present HealthLandscape mapping tools and research at the Academy Health Translation and Communications Interest Group Meeting.  The Translation and Communications Interest Group focuses on practical ways of translating and communicating research findings to diverse audiences, which can then be used to inform policy and practice. The importance of translating data and research findings in ways that are more easily understood has taken on greater importance in recent years with the open data movement providing access to large, sometimes complex datasets.


From the very beginning, HealthLandscape has been at the forefront of giving users access to data and providing tools to visualize these data for better understanding. HealthLandscape has a variety of publicly available tools that can be used to inform policy and practice.  The UDS Mapper is a mapping tool that allows users to identify areas with unserved low-income populations, which Health Center Program grantees and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) use to locate new health centers. The Population Health Mapper allows users to overlay social determinants and health outcomes data at the county-level to explore relationships and identify high-need areas. A final example is the Accountable Care Organization Explorer, which allows user to visualize quality, demographics, costs, and general characteristics of ACOs in the Medicare Shared Savings Program.


In addition to the mapping tools described above, HealthLandscape is pushing forward with research that utilizes geospatial methods to better understand major themes in health services research.  A major purpose of the Geospatial Research Brief series is to produce place-based research that includes maps and other visualizations that are easily understood by various audiences. The first three HealthLandscape Geospatial Research Briefs focus on appropriate Diabetes preventive care, with a major emphasis on identifying priority areas for policy interventions.  The first two briefs were released earlier this year, while the third brief will be available in the first week of July.


Michael Topmiller
GIS Strategist


For more information about HealthLandscape visit http://www.healthlandscape.org/


Join one of our upcoming webinars!


Wednesday, June 15, 2016

A Fate Worse Than Death?

High on the list of things people fear, often times higher than death, is public speaking.  I actually enjoy it - getting out there and talking about the great things we are doing here at HealthLandscape.  When I have this opportunity I often get to meet like-minded people doing innovative things in my three main interests: health care, informatics and geography.  


Recently, I was able to present at the URISA GIS and Public Health Conference held in Washington, DC, the work HealthLandscape is doing on linking social determinants of health with data in EHRs.  This work, on what we call Community Vital Signs, is a happy intersection of all three of my interests in a cutting edge platform.  Community Vital Signs brings the data that help us understand how our neighborhoods shape us and how place interacts with diagnoses, treatment plans and ultimately health, to the medical teams that work with us to return us to health or keep us healthy.  We continue to work on novel ways of introducing these data to health care teams so that each team member gets the data they are most able to incorporate into their workflows and act upon.


The focus of the conference was on “Mapping the Way to Healthy Communities.”  In addition to my presentation, my co-worker, Dave Grolling, presented on the HealthLandscape Population Health Mapper - a free, online tool that makes accessible many of the same data as are in our Community Vital Signs tool.  The Population Health Mapper allows users to identify cold spots, or those counties where multiple health indicators or social determinants of health are outside the range of national averages.  We argue that where these indicators pile up, we would expect high health care need and, if there are sufficient providers there, high health care use.


Actually, the HealthLandscape team frequently gets out there and demonstrates the tools we have developed- I encourage you to come see a presentation or attend one of our regularly scheduled webinars.  Just in the next two weeks we will have four presentations- at the:



We look forward to seeing you there!


Jennifer Rankin
Senior Manager for Research and Product Services
HealthLandscape

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Summer Learning, Having a Blast!




Interested in learning more about the features and functions in HealthLandscape? Sign up for free webinar sessions to hear about the tools. We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about HealthLandscape, its available functions and data, and potential uses. Please click one of the links below to register for a free webinar.  

ACO Quality Explorer
Wednesday
7/13/2016
2:00 PM
Tuesday
9/13/2016
2:00 PM
Introduction to HealthLandscape
Tuesday
7/12/2016
2:00 PM
Wednesday
8/3/2016
11:00 AM
Tuesday
9/13/2016
11:00 AM
Population Health Mapper
Monday
7/11/2016
2:00 PM
Wednesday
9/14/2016
2:00 PM
Social Determinants of Health Mapper
Wednesday
8/3/2016
2:00 PM

If our webinars do not address do not fit your schedule or address your concerns do not hesitate to Contact Us for a personalized webinar. We are proud of HealthLandscape and are always excited to teach those who are eager to learn!

Stay tuned to hear about HealthLandscape’s presentations and visits to conferences during the month of June. From the capital, to the Bayou State to San Diego, HealthLandscape is working hard to present new tools and features of the HealthLandscape platform.


Claire Meehan
User Engagement Specialist
HealthLandscape