Community HealthView Updates

What is Community HealthView?

HealthLandscape’s Community HealthView tool enables users to search a database to find publicly-available datasets and map them by state or county. Users can customize the way their data are displayed with different options for color scheme, palette, number of categories, and distribution. Current major datasets include Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) rates and measures; American Community Survey (ACS); Area Resource File (ARF); Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS); CDC Wonder; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rates, costs, and utilization; Dartmouth Atlas; Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE); National Cancer Institute State Cancer Profiles; Robert Wood Johnson Ranked Measures; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Environment Atlas.

American Community Survey (2010-2014)

The ACS is an annual survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau to capture current information on Americans and the workforce. The most recent five-year estimates (2010-2014) are now available in Community HealthView. These datasets include demographic,  socioeconomic, and housing information, such as age, race, education, family type, employment, income, language, age of housing structures, and housing without plumbing, among many others.

CMS Multiple Chronic Conditions (2014)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services releases yearly updates to their multiple chronic conditions data. HealthLandscape updated the latest 2014 CMS data release in 2016 to Community HealthView. These data include disease prevalence and Medicare utilization and spending for multiple chronic conditions. Each of these data sets includes statistics for all Medicare beneficiaries, those less than 65, and those 65 and over.

CMS Chronic Conditions (2014)

Another set of data that CMS releases annually is the chronic conditions dataset. These data show the percentage of various conditions by Medicare beneficiary age group (total, less than 65 years, 65 and over). The data describe the percent of these Medicare beneficiaries by county with conditions such as arthritis, cancer, depression, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, stroke, among others. These data were updated in 2016 for data year 2014.

CMS Geographic Variation (2014)

The third CMS related dataset that HealthLandscape has recently updated in Community HealthView is the 2014 Geographic Variation data. These data provide a spatial background on the distribution of various healthcare services that CMS recipients receive across the United States. Each indicator is represented as a cost and percent utilization. Some of these data include imaging, hospice care, outpatient dialysis, tests, emergency department visits, durable medical equipment, and Medicare Part B costs and utilization.

Health Indicators Warehouse (2011-2013; 2009-2013)

The Health Indicators Warehouse (HIW) releases data by single- or multiple-year on an annual basis. HealthLandscape has updated Community HealthView with the 2013 HIW prevalence data for several datasets for aggregate data years, 2011-2013, and where applicable, 2009-2013 aggregates. HIW data have been updated for several indicators including cancer and heart disease deaths, years of potential life lost, and infant mortality.

Looking forward

In the coming months, HealthLandscape will be updating Community HealthView with many more datasets that haven’t been updated in several years. Some of these will include data on 2014 Supplemental Security Income Recipients, the 2010 USDA Food Deserts, 2010-2012 HIV Prevalence from HIW, 2010-2011 Internal Revenue Service Migration Data, 2015 Census Population Estimates, and the 2016 Robert Wood Johnson Ranked and Additional Measures data.

For live updates on what will be updated next, follow us on Twitter!

David Grolling

GIS Specialist

HealthLandscape