New Data: CMS County-Level Chronic Conditions

Map showing the prevalence of diabetes among the
Medicare population by county.

 New data available in HealthLandscape!

Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released new data about Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who have chronic conditions. This data set is now available in HealthLandscape's Community HealthView data library.

Threshold map showing counties where diabetes prevalance
among the Medicare population exceeds 30 percent.

This data set tracks 15 chronic conditions and lists their prevalence by county:

• Alzheimer's disease, related disorders, or senile dementia
• Arthritis (including rheumatoid and osteoarthritis)
• Asthma
• Atrial fibrillation
• Cancer (breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate)
• Chronic kidney disease
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Depression
• Diabetes (excluding diabetic conditions
  related to pregnancy)
• Heart failure
• High cholesterol (hyperlipidemia)
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Ischemic heart disease
• Osteoporosis
• Stroke/transient ischemic attack 

Map showing the emergency department visit rate by county
for Medicare population with 6 or more chronic conditions.

The data set also includes data for Medicare beneficiaries who have multiple chronic conditions. It tracks:

• Prevalance by county
• Spending per capita
• Emergency department visit rate
• Hospital readmission rate

To access this data set, log in to www.HealthLandscape.org (registration is free), click "Community HealthView" on the Tools menu, and enter "chronic conditions" in the search field. You'll see the list of available data sets.

For a more detailed overview of HealthLandscape and our Community HealthView data library, click here to sign up for an "Introduction to HealthLandscape" webinar.

School-Based Health Center Performance Monitor Wins Award

HealthLandscape's interactive visualization of school-based health center (SBHC) performance was recognized as one of the top three web-based GIS applications in Esri's User Software Applications Fair last week at the 2013 Esri International User Conference in San Diego.

The School-Based Health Center Performance Monitor is based on our Site Performance Explorer, a tool we created to help organizations monitor performance of multiple sites. Specifically, the School-Based Health Center Performance Monitor compares the number of vision, dental, and hearing screening referrals SBHCs complete against benchmarks.

Click here to try it out.

HealthLandscape's School-Based Health Center Performance Monitor shows instantly how well a particular school-based health center is performing against benchmarks.

Each SBHC is mapped and given a red, yellow, or green label according to its performance. When the user's cursor hovers over a specific SBHC, three windows appear, showing how well the center is meeting vision, dental, and hearing screening goals. Users can instantly see which focus area needs attention.

The Site Performance Explorer can be used with any kind of benchmarking data. Organizations select the indicators they want to track and establish benchmark values. The Site Performance Explorer then compares actual performance against goals to give a visual indicator of performance.

We'll be highlighting the Site Performance Explorer in our upcoming "Visualizing Data with HealthLandscape" webinar on Tuesday, July 30, at 2:00 pm. Registration is free. Click here to register or email us for more information.

Thanks, Esri Users, for voting us as one of your favorites. And a shout-out to Blue Raster, our development partner, for winning in the Mobile GIS App category!

will.i.am and i.am.angel Foundation Promote STEM Education Through GIS

Roosevelt High School students presenting their
GIS projects at the 2013 Esri User Conference.

We're at the Esri International User Conference this week and want to share with you two amazing presentations featuring will.i.am and the i.am.angel Foundation's work to integrate geographic information systems (GIS) with STEM education in the East LA neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

will.i.am at the 2013 Esri User Conference sharing his passion
for transforming his Boyle Heights neighborhood via STEM.

will's vision of transforming inner cities into desired places of living includes getting STEM tools into the hands of students at very young ages, and working with companies to invest in coding rooms instead of just basketball courts and football fields.

The first video ("STEM & GIS in Schools with Amber Case, Charlie Fitzpatrick, i.am.angel and Roosevelt High School," 19:24) shows four Roosevelt High School students and the local problems they visualized with GIS:

• The disparity between race, income, and education as described by Jonathan Kozol in his book Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
• Access to parks ("We are a park poor community")
• The high level of visual pollution (excess advertising via billboards)
• The proximity of brownfields to students' residences

In the second video ("Special Guest will.i.am and Jack Dangermond," 39:30), will.i.am shares his passion to instill hope and bring real opportunity to neighborhoods like Boyle Heights, the Fifth Ward (Houston), and the Bronx.

To watch the videos, click here. You'll see the plenary videos listed in the center of the screen. Scroll down and look for the titles shown above. It's a bit of effort to find the videos, but worth it.

HealthLandscape is built on the Esri ArcGIS mapping platform. Contact us at info@healthlandscape.org to see how we can help you map your neighborhood.