Public Health Department Funded to Make Data FAIR

Posted by Derek Johnson on August 2nd, 2018 Posted in: Data Science, Funding, Public Health, Success Stories
Tags: Data Management, Data Science, Success Stories

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The GMR office is excited to announce that Richland Public Health has been granted a Research Data Award to make county-level health data FAIR.

Background:

Health assessments at the county-level are resources health professionals and librarians rely on heavily to inform the development of community health programming, interventions, and grant applications to fund efforts that improve the health, well-being, and quality of life of their constituents. These health assessments include, but are not limited to, Community Health Assessments (CHA), Community Health Improvement Plans (CHIP), and Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA). These health assessments are expected to be performed and utilized by hospitals, public health departments, and other social service agencies to identify key community health concerns every 3-5 years.

Within Richland County, the raw data collected for these assessments are often siloed.

Project Description

The Making County-Level Health Data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) Initiative will consist of three phases in order to establish and sustain an online interface for local health professionals and librarians to access and analyze county-level health assessment data, as well as educate these individuals on utilizing this resource and creating their own data management plans.

The first phase of this proposed project will be to develop and implement a database where raw data from Richland County health assessments can be accessed and analyzed by local health professionals and librarians.

The second phase will consist of the creation and hosting of a data access and management webinar to introduce Richland County health professionals and librarians to the online interface.

Finally, phase three will provide an additional webinar to 12 rural North Central Ohio Counties in an effort to educate their local health professionals and librarians about data management plans as well as how to access, analyze, and contribute to the Making County-Level Health Data FAIR Initiative database.

Outcomes

A formative and summative evaluation will be used to measure the success of this project. First, the project will use a formative evaluation using the FAIR Guiding Principles to make sure the project meets the prerequisites for proper data management and stewardship. A summative evaluation will be used to determine the success in educating health professionals and librarians about the database.