While most communities have standard vital statistics data on the health of their community, few have the resources to expand data collection and analysis beyond these traditional data sources. Partnerships with regional healthcare systems allow community health coalitions to harness the resources of health research professionals to explore, acquire, analyze, and compile data from a wider variety of data sources. In 1998, such a partnership was formed through a community health planning initiative focusing on four counties in the south, central region of North Carolina. The working entity of this project, Carolinas Community Health Institute (CCHI), has been able to enhance data sharing, provide information systems support to access data, and provide research professionals to assist in developing community health profiles. Communities involved have augmented their health assessments with analysis of data such as emergency department usage, hospital discharges, emergency medical services, motor vehicle crashes, mental health, and environmental health. Tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been used to identify and visualize spatial relationships for health care data and to detect patterns. In this session we discuss the opportunities and challenges for utilizing non-traditional data and ways of presenting health data through GIS mapping. Working with local community health coalitions, we describe how this information can assist to better understand health status, raise community awareness, determine intervention strategies, develop local grant initiatives, and enhance existing health programs.
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe a process for augmenting traditional community health assessment data. 2. Identify and understand challenges associated with sharing health data and data sources. 3. Identify non-traditional data sources that can enhance community health assessments. 4. Describe opportunities for utilizing GIS health data to heighten awareness and understanding of community health concerns.
Keywords: Community Health Assessment, Data Collection
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.