HealthLandscape Launches a New Mapping ToolUsing Census Tract-Level Data from the CDC 500 Cities Small area estimates of health and health outcomes are difficult and prohibitively expensive to acquire.  National data systems such as the National Health Interview Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System do not collect samples large enough to produce detailed...

I like food and I like eating.  I’ve been known do it several times a day.  Sometime MORE than several times. Some of my favorite foods include: Kiwifruit, Bacon, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Pumpkin, Zucchini, Bacon, Cashew, Cucumber, Bacon, Buckwheat, Fennel, Apple, Bacon, Mango, Avocado, Bacon, Apricot, Sweet Cherry, Sour cherry, Bacon, Almond, Peach, Bacon, Pear, Raspberry, Blackberry,...

Those who know me well, know that I’m not overly fond of air travel and spend an unfortunate amount of time traveling by car from Cincinnati to far-flung locations like Washington DC, Atlanta, Tampa,  Chicago, Kansas City and all places in between.  In all my travels, there is really only one consistency:  The Waffle House....

In an era of increasing access to big data and healthcare transformation, there is a need for research and tools that help illuminate these data and provide insights into the significant changes that are occurring in the healthcare realm.  Further, it is now clear that place matters to health, and that there is significant geographic...

With apologies to Misters Gilmour, Mason, Waters, and Wright. In 2011, the oldest members of the American Baby Boomer generation crossed into retirement.  By 2060, 98 million people in America, that is one in four, will be 65 or older. As they (we!) age, seniors face a growing list of general ailments, medical complications, therapeutic...

The Esri International User Conference takes place each summer in San Diego, California. The HealthLandscape application is built on the esri ArcGIS platform, so we regularly attend the conference to discuss our work and to stay current in esri technology and trends. It’s a great opportunity to mingle with other data geeks, learn some new...

How does Place Matter to the health of the public and the health of an individual? I have a catch-phrase answer I use that says simply “Because Everything Happens Somewhere.”  This deceptively simplistic response actually hides a fair amount of complexity.  Where a person lives, where they spend many hours working during a year, and...

The Affordable Care Act has recently funded several innovative programs aimed at improving Medicare quality while reducing costs.  A key part of these efforts is to link Medicare payment to the quality of care rather than the quantity, with the goal of moving away from fee-for-service payment models. One such innovative program funded by the...

Place matters to personal and population health.  The social determinants of health have begun to shape public health and policy interventions and neighborhood socioeconomic and demographic characteristics play significant roles in influencing health outcomes.  The continued realization that place matters has led to the emergence of the field of population health, which includes health determinants,...

As part of the Affordable Care Act, new models of health care delivery have been developed with the objective to improve the quality of care while reducing costs.  Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which are made up of groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers that coordinate care for Medicare beneficiaries, are being touted...