Collaboration Makes Comprehensive Health Data Available to Public in Unique Way

Data from Rochester RHIO’s Community Health Indicators Report, including never-before-presented clinical measures of the region’s health, are now available to the public at the RocHealthData website. The site, developed and supported by the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Clinical & Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI) and Center for Community Health & Prevention (CCHP), provides access to maps and datasets that help our community explore and understand our health successes and challenges.

Commissioned by Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce and compiled by Rochester RHIO, the region’s trusted health information exchange, the 13-county data report helps set the stage for health improvement planning and programs for years to come. It contains health measures including obesity, prevalence of smoking, blood pressure control rates and diabetes control rates. This first local population health dataset containing clinical data available at a granular level – by county, by age and by sex – includes full-year 2017 anonymous data with a total sample of more than 600,000 observations. Rochester RHIO plans to publish these data annually through the RocHealthData website, allowing year-to-year comparisons of data and tracking of progress.

RocHealthData is an interactive tool that makes health data, like those in the Community Health Indicators Report, available to the public. The website allows individuals to discover and analyze health outcomes and social determinants of health across the Finger Lakes region through customizable maps and reports. RocHealthData provides access to more than 10,000 sets of health-related data, from cancer screening rates to tobacco expenditures to teen pregnancy rates. Other RocHealthData partners include the Monroe County Department of Public Health, Rochester RHIO and Common Ground Health.

“RocHealthData grew out of a need and desire to have easily accessible, easily searchable and interactive health data,” Kathleen Holt, Ph.D., staff scientist with the CCHP and UR CTSI. “It is the perfect tool to explore the rich and comprehensive data from around the region, such as those included in the Community Health Indicators Report.”

As previously reported in Rochester RHIO’s Report summary earlier this summer, some key health measures and highlights of the 2017 data include:

• The percentage of patients who say they smoke is 22 percent of the population, which is higher than the latest national average (14%) reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• The prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30) throughout the Greater Finger Lakes region is 41.9 percent. The latest national average reported by the CDC was 39.8 percent.
• Nearly two-thirds of patients (66.4 percent) who had high blood pressure have their condition under control, which is better than the national average by 12 percentage points. The CDC reports that only about 54 percent of Americans have their high blood pressure under control.
• Almost three out of four (74.4%) patients with a diabetes diagnosis have their disease under control, indicated by an HbA1c level of less than <8.0%.

“RocHealthData is a rich resource for interested community members, community-based organizations, health leaders and researchers,” said Nancy M. Bennett, M.D., M.S., director of the CCHP and co-director of UR CTSI.  “The mapping functions make it clear where we need to target our resources to improve health, and the overall data enable us to set goals and evaluate our progress towards them. Finally, the data will enable those developing interventions to target the communities most in need.  RocHealthData is a tremendous public resource for us all.” 

“The value of population health information increases through a platform like RocHealthData that can lead to eye-opening insights,” said Jill Eisenstein, president and CEO of Rochester RHIO. “As the region’s trusted health information exchange, it is a privilege to be the steward of these data and we are excited about this collaboration that can spark positive change.”

To see highlights of the four key health measures across the region, RocHealthData visitors can go to https://rochealthdata.org/community-health-indicators. Access to all of the data is easily accessible and free. To download and/or interact with the data through customizable maps, users can register and become a member of the site at https://rochealthdata.org/register. 

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For media inquiries, contact Rebecca Youmell at (585) 224-3058 or Rebecca_Youmell@URMC.Rochester.edu.

 

Michael Hazard | 8/12/2019