HealthLandscape

HealthLandscape Webinar Series

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:53:00 -0400

Interested in learning more about the new features in HealthLandscape? Sign up for a free webinar session to hear about the tools and datasets available to our users. Visit our webinar page for a list of dates, and times from now through December. There are currently three webinars being offered, as described below. We will be developing webinars on other special topics, including crime and economic datasets, in the coming months. Introduction to HealthLandscape Geospatial Analysis Health and community are tightly connected. HealthLandscape gives users the ability to create custom maps and tables of health in their communities - depicting populations at risk, health outcomes, and the distribution of health interventions. During this webinar you will learn to use the HealthLandscape interface, what data are available, and how to add your own data to create custom maps. Using HealthLandscape with Census Data Learn how to use data from the American Community Survey and other US Census Bureau datasets to create custom maps with HealthLandscape. Using HealthLandscape with CDC and other Health Data Learn to download CDC data and create maps with HealthLandscape.

Introducing the New HealthLandscape

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:52:00 -0400

The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and the American Academy of Family Physicians Release Major Upgrade to HealthLandscape.org Data Visualization Tool CINCINNATI -- The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) announce a major upgrade to HealthLandscape.org, a web-based data visualization tool (www.healthlandscape.org) that allows healthcare payers, providers, policymakers, researchers, and community planners to perform spatial analysis on health-related data. "We know that personal health is affected by many determinants outside our physical condition. For example, how does our community healthcare infrastructure, our social environment, our economic well-being affect our health?" asks Mark Carrozza, Health Informatics Developer at the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and chief architect of the HealthLandscape.org tool. "HealthLandscape.org helps healthcare providers, payers, policymakers, and planners visualize the impact of such multiple factors on our health." In the past, health professionals needed to be highly specialized and extensively trained to make effective use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping tools. The new release of HealthLandscape has addressed many shortcomings of early systems. A few of the new features in this release include:

Ease of use - easily deployed by health professionals with modest information technology backgrounds
Pre-loaded datasets that include multiple factors affecting personal health with extensive ability to overlay several conditions on one screen (e.g. correlation of obesity and poverty)
Simple point-and-click access to health information. The data have already been uploaded
Quick maps, themes, and geocoding capabilities allow users to create maps almost instantly
Simple data upload capabilities that take output from electronic medical record systems or other database systems formatted as spreadsheets and pasted directly into HealthLandscape

"With HealthLandscape.org, users can upload their data through a simple spreadsheet, geocode it (turn addresses into mappable geographic coordinates) and then immediately create elegant, meaningful visual maps of that information," Carrozza says. "It's a lot easier to see relationships in graphic form than it is to interpret data through tables or charts." Data visualizations created from a user's own data are powerful. But HealthLandscape.org also provides superior access to public datasets through its new QuickMaps, QuickThemes, and Community Health View tools. Layering a user's own data with public datasets such as average household size, percentage of the population in poverty, census data, transportation data, health professional shortage areas and other indicators offers insight not readily discernible any other way. All maps can be stored on the web and made accessible wherever there is a web connection for use in reports, analyses, and presentations. "Adding graphic data to a presentation can quickly help users Show their Need, Tell their Story, and Explore Alternatives," says Ed Carl, Executive Director of HealthLandscape, LLC. HealthLandscape.org displays data from the national down to the neighborhood level in compliance with HIPAA data security requirements, thus ensuring confidentiality of all patient information. HealthLandscape is a collaboration between The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Both organizations are nonprofit enterprises that share the vision of improving the health condition of their constituents through better understanding of the underlying information that affects health. "Our primary goal is to promote understanding and improvement of health and healthcare at all levels. HealthLandscape lets people become more involved in and better educated about the health of our communities," says Pat O'Connor, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati. "Healthcare providers, grantees, and policymakers need powerful data and tools to inform their decisions. HealthLandscape.org can provide just those tools and data." "HealthLandscape can play a significant role for a much wider array of users to work with, display, share and benefit from community health data," said Andrew Bazemore, Assistant Director of the Robert Graham Center, American Academy of Family Physicians. "Policy makers think spatially. They look at maps and understand health in terms of their constituents in a way that simple tables do not permit. With HealthLandscape, health professionals in their communities will be able to use maps to better understand local issues and have the data needed to make more informed health policy decisions."
This map shows counties where obesity is a concern; darker shading means higher percentage obese. ***** About the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati is an independent foundation dedicated to improving community health through grants, evaluation, and education. The Foundation works in Cincinnati and 20 surrounding counties in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. For more information please visit www.healthfoundation.org. About the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) The American Academy of Family Physicians is the United States' national association of family physicians. It has more than 100,300 members in the 50 states and territories. The Academy was founded in 1947 to promote and maintain high quality standards for family doctors who provide comprehensive health care to the public. For more information please visit www.AAFP.org.

HealthLandscape and UDS Mapper Win First Place in Esri Application Fair

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:59:00 -0400

HealthLandscape and UDS Mapper took first place in the Web-Based GIS Application catergory at the Esri International User Conference's User Software Applications Fair. The full display included HealthLandscape Version 3, the UDS Mapper, and the Med School Mapper. Esri is the world leader in Geographic Information Systems. The Conference took place July 11-15 in San Diego and drew more than 15,000 GIS users. Application Fair prizes were awarded based on attendee voting.

CDC: Diabetes Surveillance System

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:30:00 -0400

New data available in HealthLandscape!

We have added the most recent data from the CDC Diabetes Surveillance System to HealthLandscape, both at www.healthlandscape.org and, in Quick Map form, at beta.healthlandscape.org. Variables include the Percent of Adults who are Physically Inactive, the Percent of Adults who are Obese, and the Percent of Adults who have Diabetes.

Figure 1. Percent of Adults Who Are Physically Inactive, 2008

Figure 2. Percent of Adults Who Are Physically Inactive, 2008 (HL3)

Diabetes Data and Trends, which includes the National Diabetes Fact Sheet and the National Diabetes Surveillance System, provides resources documenting the public health burden of diabetes and its complications in the United States. The surveillance system also includes county-level estimates of diagnosed diabetes and selected risk factors for all U.S. counties to help target and optimize the resources for diabetes control and prevention.

The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes and selected risk factors by county was estimated using data from CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program. The BRFSS is an ongoing, monthly, state-based telephone survey of the adult population. The survey provides state-specific information on behavioral risk factors and preventive health practices. Respondents were considered to have diabetes if they responded "yes" to the question, "Has a doctor ever told you that you have diabetes?" Women who indicated that they only had diabetes during pregnancy were not considered to have diabetes. Respondents were considered obese if their body mass index was 30 or greater. Body mass index (weight [kg]/height [m]2) was derived from self-report of height and weight. Respondents were considered to be physically inactive if they answered "no" to the question, "During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?"

See the CDC Diabetes Surveillance System for more information.

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New Webinar - Using the Med School Mapper

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:21:00 -0400

The American Academy of Family Physicians' Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care publicly launched the Med School Mapper project back in November, 2010 Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation (for details, please refer to the initial annoucement here).

We are now scheduling webinars to showcase this unique tool. The first webinar will take place on Tuesday, March 15, at 2:00PM. Please visit the registration page to sign up for the online session.

Amidst AAMC and COGME recommended expansion of medical education, principally through expansion of existing training sites, there is little mention and measurement of how the large investments of public dollars meet the needs of the citizens. In response to this, the Macy Foundation is funding the Medical Education Futures Study. This response is consistent with Macy's mission to promote and evaluate the social responsiveness and mission of each medical school. Its ranking of schools by social accountability criteria is a novel first step in considering their social impact on a national scale. However, as state policymakers attempt to direct expansion funding forecasting for their own regional social and health care access needs, they have few tools for understanding the local and regional impact of schools. Neither national rankings, nor workforce models can truly capture the regional impact of training sites. The Robert Graham Center has created the Med School Mapper to study the means of demonstrating such an impact, using geographic and policy analyses of individual medical schools' graduates.

Introducing HealthLandscape Version 3

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:33:00 -0400

The HealthLandscape team is pleased to announce the Beta launch of HealthLandscape Version 3.

We're opening the new site in its testing stage for public access while we fine tune the layout and controls and finish the development of the modules you're all familiar with, such as Community HealthView and My HealthLandscape. We'll also be soliciting feedback from our Beta users to get an understanding of what they like and don't like about the new site design, and ways that we can improve the usability and flow of the application.

To start using HealthLandscape V3, go to beta.healthlandscape.org. You will need to create a new account to view and use the mapping application. You can use the same email address and password that you used to sign up for the original HealthLandscape, but at this time the accounts will not be transferred over automatically.

HealthLandscape Version 3 is vastly different from the current HealthLandscape in a number of ways. We've designed the new HealthLandscape to be easier to use, with fewer mouseclicks required to get to the data that you need. Instead of wizards and lists of data categories and variables, there are more logical ways to organize and sort the data. This new design allows you to turn tools on and off depending on your data needs, and also allows you to display layers from multiple tools on the map at the same time.

Another way that we're improving the ease of use is through the introduction of Quick Maps and Quick Geocodes, tools that will be introduced to you over the next few weeks as part of a series of blog entries about the details of HealthLandscape V3.

We're very excited to share the new site and hope you enjoy exploring the updates.

HealthLandscape Welcomes James Schwab

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:22:00 -0400

On January 24th, James Schwab joined The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati as the new director, president, and chief executive officer.

Schwab, who previously announced his retirement as the Cincinnati market president for U.S. Bank, has long been deeply involved with Cincinnati's non-profit community. He is chairman of the board of TriHealth and serves on the board of the Health Improvement Collaborative. Schwab also serves as trustee of The University of Cincinnati Foundation; The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Hoxworth Blood Center; The Children's Home; The Cincinnati Zoo; the Research and Education Committee of Cincinnati's Children's Research Foundation; and the Southwest Ohio Region Workforce Investment Board. Schwab is also a trustee of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

Jim Schwab is a lifelong Cincinnati resident and has held many positions with companies that dot Cincinnati's skyline including Great American Holding Company, Xtec, General Cable Corporation, American Financial Corporation, Corporex and The Baldwin-United Corporation. Schwab graduated from the University of Cincinnati and the University of Michigan Law School.

HealthLandscape welcomes Mr. Schwab to the Health Foundation. We look forward to working together.

What is OASIS?

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:52:00 -0400

Visit OASIS - the Online Analysis and Statistical Information System. OASIS is a project funded by The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati as a way to make the results of research more accessible to its grantees and the general public. OASIS now has a blog and a Facebook page. You can also follow OASIS on Twitter.

Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, 2009

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:27:00 -0400

New data available in HealthLandscape!

Yesterday, the U.S. Census Bureau released their 2009 Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates. According to their analysis, the poverty rate for children ages 5 to 17 in families rose in 295 counties and declined in 19 counties between 2007 and 2009. Most counties saw no statistically significant change between these years.

The U.S. Census Bureau, with support from other Federal agencies, created the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program to provide more current estimates of selected income and poverty statistics than those from the most recent decennial census.

The U.S. Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program provides annual estimates of income and poverty statistics for all states, counties, and school districts. The main objective of the program is to provide estimates of income and poverty for the administration of federal programs and the allocation of federal funds to local jurisdictions. In addition to these federal programs, there are hundreds of state and local programs that depend on income and poverty estimates for distributing funds and managing programs.

The SAIPE program produces the following county estimates:
? total number of people in poverty
? number of related children ages 5 to 17 in families in poverty
? number of children under age 18 in poverty
? median household income

The estimates are not direct counts from enumerations or administrative records, nor direct estimates from sample surveys. Instead, income and poverty estimates are modeled by combining survey data with population estimates and administrative records. Beginning with the SAIPE program's estimates for 2005, data from the American Community Survey (ACS) are used in the estimation procedure; all prior years used data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplements of the Current Population Survey. Further details are given in a 2007 SAIPE report, Use of ACS Data to Produce SAIPE Model-Based Estimates of Poverty for Counties [PDF 3.4M]. For more information, see Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates.

Figure 1. Percent of Population in Poverty by County, 2009

Figure 2. Percent of Population Under 18 Years of Age in Poverty by County, 2009

Happy GIS Day!

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:39:00 -0400

What a great fall season so far - October brought us World Statistics Day, and November brings us GIS Day. For those of you who aren't well-acquainted with the term, GIS stands for Geographic Information System. GIS brings together technology and data to create a unique way to capture and display information. We use GIS to visualize data in a way that's often more meaningful than simple tables of numbers, where the real story often gets lost in the rows and columns. Displaying the data in geographic context makes it easier to spot patterns, trends, and relationships.

HealthLandscape uses GIS technology to map community data, including health, socio-economic and environmental information. The power behind the HealthLandscape platform is that all of the data are freely available in one central location.

Figure 1. Rate of High Cost Conventional Loans - Cincinnati Region - 2008 (Tract Level)

Figure 2. Ohio Self-Sufficiency Standard 2008: One Adult, One Infant, One Preschooler

Figure 3. County-Level Counts of H1N1 Cases

Other groups and agencies use GIS for in variety of applications, including mapping the ground motion and shaking intensity after an earthquake, the environmental consequences of natural and man-caused disasters, estimated carbon emission patterns, and crime rates. There is even an entire project dedicated to the mapping of historical Census data - GIS For History.

Figure 4. Pacific Northwest Shakemap, U.S. Geological Survey

Figure 5. Guimaras Oil Spill, Philippines, WWF Philippines

Figure 6. Total Emissions of Fossil Fuel Carbon Dioxide, The Vulcan Project

Figure 7. Rutgers Crime Log, Rutgers University

Figure 8. The First Census: America in 1790, GIS For History

For more information on GIS, visit GIS.com.

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Robert Graham Center Unveils Med School Mapper

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:02:00 -0400

The American Academy of Family Physicians' Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care publicly launched the Med School Mapper project on November 1, 2010, with funding provided by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

Amidst American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME) recommended expansion of medical education, principally through expansion of existing training sites, there is little mention or measurement of how the large investments of public dollars meet the needs of the citizens. In response to this, the Macy Foundation funds the Medical Education Futures Study (MEFS), whose main mission is "to highlight the social mission of medical education during the current period of medical school expansion and potential major health care reform. " This ranking of schools by social accountability is a novel step in understanding their social impact on a national scale. However, as state policymakers attempt to direct expansion funding in terms of accountability to their own regional, social and health care access needs, they have few tools for understanding the local and regional impact of schools. Neither national rankings nor workforce models can capture the regional impact of training sites.

The Robert Graham Center has been studying means of demonstrating such an impact, using geographic and policy analyses of individual medical schools' graduates (both allopathic and osteopathic). Using novel approaches to analyzing and displaying regional impact, the Med School Mapper will give planners essential information for directing and evaluating medical school expansion and its impact on access and other social aims. This tool utilizes American Medical Association (AMA) data, and ranks states and their medical schools on various areas of practice and the number and percent of graduates retained in state. The Mapper tracks the graduate footprint from a state, or medical school within that state, to provide a clear visualization of the practice locations of graduates by county, their penetration rates within counties, and information about the types of areas and specialties in which these graduates practice in order to provide data detailing how well a particular state or school meets its mission of social accountability.

Figure 1. State Footprint

Figure 2. School Footprint

HealthLandscape Version 3.0 - Coming Soon!

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:29:00 -0400

The HealthLandscape team is in Washington, DC this week finishing up the development of HealthLandscape Version 3.0. We've been putting in long hours with our friends at Blue Raster and the Robert Graham Center making improvements to the current HealthLandscape. When HealthLandscape V3 is released, users will have access to a number of new tools including quick geocodes, quick maps, drawing tools, improved printing capabilities, and easy data exports, just to name a few.

We're very excited about the new developments. Many more details and final release date coming soon!

Halloween Mapping with HealthLandscape

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:52:00 -0400

The US Census Bureau just released their Halloween Special Feature. According to their research, in 2009 there were 36 million potential trick-or-treaters, or children between the ages of 5 and 13. These trick-or-treaters had 111.3 million occupied housing units to canvas for the annual haul of candy.

HealthLandscape can help you with your Halloween planning. If your county has a high number of trick-or-treaters, then you'd better have a few extra bowls of candy standing by.

Figure 1. Number of Children Ages 5 to 13, 2009 (Population Estimates)

Speaking of candy, in 2009 Americans had a per capital candy consumption of 24.3 pounds! Where did it all come from? California has the largest number of confectionery establishments, with 193. Pennsylvania is second, with 143, and New York is third, with 120.

Figure 2. Number of Confectionery Manufacturing Establishments (Chocolate and Non-Chocolate), 2008 (County Business Patterns)

Happy Halloween!

World Statistics Day

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:41:00 -0400

Happy World Statistics Day!

October 20, 2010 was set aside to celebrate the first World Statistics Day. The goal is to raise awareness of the achievements of official statistics and to recognize the work of statisticians in producing and disseminating the necessary data to respond to the every day new challenges and to measure progress in people's lives. The celebration of the World Statistics Day will acknowledge the service provided by the global statistical system at national and international level, and help strengthen the awareness and trust of the public in official statistics. It serves as an advocacy tool to further support the work of statisticians across different settings, cultures, and domains.

Over 100 countries around the globe are celebrating with special events, Census data releases, statistical literacy campaigns, and statistical fairs.

Statistics are a part of our every day lives. We use and reference them regularly, sometimes without even realizing it. The US Census Bureau produced a video to illustrate just how common (and important!) statistics are.

They've also released a Special Edition of Facts for Features, featuring some fun facts in honor of the occasion:

There are 14 U.S. principal statistical agencies: the Bureau of Economic Analysis; Bureau of Justice Statistics; Bureau of Labor Statistics; Bureau of Transportation Statistics; U.S. Census Bureau; Economic Research Service; Energy Information Administration; National Agricultural Statistics Service; National Center for Education Statistics; National Center for Health Statistics; Office of Environmental Information; Social Security Administration Office of Research Evaluation and Statistics; National Science Foundation: Science Resources Statistics; and the Internal Revenue Service's Statistics of Income Division. (HealthLandscape includes data from many of these agencies!)

There were 29,208 statisticians employed in the United States in 2009.

In 2008, 20 percent of statisticians are employed by the federal government, with most of them concentrated in the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services. Another 10 percent worked for state and local governments.

(Source: US Census Bureau)

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The Data are Coming!

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:09:00 -0400

Good news for all of the data-minded readers out there! While we're all anxiously awaiting the release of the Census 2010 data, we can begin to enjoy the first wave of releases from the American Community Survey.

The American Community Survey replaced the traditional long-form questionnaire that was sent to a smaller subset of households through Census 2000. The ACS sample includes about 3 million housing and group quarter units in the US, including representation from every county. The survey asks about professions, earnings, health insurance, modes of transportation, and housing costs. Census 2010 gives us the actual count of the population on April 1, 2010, but it's the ACS that describes how that population lives - the portrait of America. The 2009 ACS 1-Year Estimates are now available in the American Fact Finder for geographic areas with populations of 65,000 or more.

The highlights?

Median Household Income - Real median household income in the United States fell between 2008 and 2009 -- decreasing by 2.9 percent from $51,726 to $50,221.

Poverty - Thirty-one states saw increases in both the number and percentage of people in poverty between 2008 and 2009.

Health Insurance - In 2009, the uninsured rate for children under 19 in the United States was 9.0 percent, and the uninsured rate in the states ranged from 18.4 percent in Nevada to 1.5 percent in Massachusetts.

Industry and Occupation - Work hours fell in 46 of the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas between 2008 and 2009.

Home Values - After adjusting for inflation, the median property value decreased in the United States by 5.8 percent between 2008 and 2009.

Rental Housing Costs - Housing cost burdens ranged from a low of 23.2 percent of renting households in the Casper, Wyo., metro area to a high of 62.8 percent of renting households in the College Station-Bryan, Texas, metro area.

Education -- Science and Technology - The estimated number of people in the United States 25 and over with a bachelor's degree or higher was 56.3 million. Of this group, 20.5 million, or 36.4 percent, held at least one science and engineering degree.

Even more exciting than newly updated 1-Year Estimates; for the first time ever we will be able to get regularly-updated county- and place-level information for ALL US COUNTIES AND PLACES, including those with fewer than 20,000 people, through 5-year estimates. The first release of these 5-year estimates is scheduled for December, 2010. This is a big deal to those of us who regularly use data to describe populations and solve problems, as the best data we have right now for those smaller areas are 10 years old. You can imagine what kind of problems this can cause. Think about how much has changed in your own personal life over the last 10 years. 10 years ago, would you have been able to accurately predict where you are today? Population estimates and extrapolation can only take us so far.

In the meantime, there are plenty of other tools and articles to explore. Check out this page from USA Today, which includes an interactive mini-map that displays 2009 ACS data, by state.

You can also follow the official blog of the US Census Bureau, Random Sampling.

Of course, HealthLandscape is continuously uploading data to the newly added 2009 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates section, so be sure to check back regularly for new additions.

Figure 1. Journey to Work: Percent of Population Using Public Transportation

Figure 2. Educational Attainment: Percent of Population with Graduate Degrees

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