Contact Information: Contact: Christine Mulvin 513-458-6621
The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati and the American Academy of Family Physicians Launch HealthLandscape
Organizations Release First Interactive, Web-Based Tool to Allow Health Professionals, Policy Makers and Academics to Upload, Geocode, Interact With and Display Large Amounts of Health-Related Data
CINCINNATI, OH--(Marketwire - December 16, 2008) - The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati
and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) today introduced HealthLandscape, an interactive
web atlas that allows health professionals, policy makers, academic
researchers and planners to combine, analyze and display information in
ways that promote better understanding of health and the forces that affect
it. The tool, found at www.healthlandscape.org, brings together various
sources of health, socio-economic and environmental information in a
convenient, central location to help answer questions about and improve
health and healthcare.
With HealthLandscape, users can upload and geocode large amounts of data quickly and easily. They can
then combine their data with publicly available data sets, including
regional criminal justice, economic, education, healthcare and census data.
HealthLandscape can then be used to create maps, view tables, discover
community characteristics and share information with health professionals,
policy makers, and legislators.
"HealthLandscape plays a significant role in broadening the opportunity 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, those that serve the cause of
improving the health 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."
The process of data acquisition, processing and mapping involves a
significant investment in technology, time and training that can be
prohibitive. HealthLandscape removes these barriers, providing everyone
access to a powerful information management display tool that
also complies with HIPAA data sensitivity requirements. In the past, if
clinicians, administrators, policymakers and advocates needed to map their
data, they would hire a geographic information system (GIS) expert or spend
tens of thousands of dollars for software and hours of personnel time to do
it in-house. HealthLandscape allows users to create custom maps in just
minutes.
"Most never thought something like HealthLandscape could be done, and at
the start of its development, we found nothing on the market that would
allow people to easily interact with and map large amounts of health data.
HealthLandscape lets people become more involved in and better educated
about the health of our communities," added Pat O'Connor, vice president
and COO of The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati. "It is important to
note that HealthLandscape and the organizations behind it are not
for-profit enterprises. People whose interests lie in the greater good
conceived of and developed HealthLandscape. Our focus remains on enabling a
wider audience to use and benefit from easily accessible
community health data in order to improve health and health policy."
HealthLandscape is online at www.healthlandscape.org.
About the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati
The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati is an independent foundation
dedicated to improving the health of the people of the Cincinnati region.
The Foundation awards grants to non-profit and governmental organizations
for selected health programs and activities in Cincinnati and 20
surrounding counties in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Since its inception in
1996, the Health Foundation has invested over $100 million to support local
healthcare programs that address the objectives of the Foundation's four
focus areas and general community health. For more information please visit
www.healthfoundation.org.
About the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents more than 93,000 physicians and
medical students nationwide. It is the only medical society devoted solely
to primary care. Nearly one in four of all office visits are made to family
physicians. That is 215 million office visits each year -- nearly 48
million more than the next medical specialty. Today, family physicians
provide the majority of care for America's underserved and rural
populations. For more information please visit www.AAFP.org.