The Institute for Public Health Innovation’s County Health Rankings Meeting Sparks Exploration to Advance Regional Data Systems

On June 3, 2010 at the AT&T Innovation Center in Washington, D.C., the Institute for Public Health Innovation (IPHi) convened local health directors, epidemiologists, and community health advocates from Virginia and Maryland counties in the metropolitan Washington region to discuss the County Health Rankings. The County Health Rankings are a key component of the Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health (MATCH) project, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

During the meeting, IPHi provided an overview of the County Health Rankings process and methods, framed discussion of the Maryland and Virginia rankings, and facilitated discussion of interpretations and implications of the rankings for the region. The discussion was rich, and IPHi synthesized the group’s feedback and provided it to the MATCH team at the University of Wisconsin. The most exciting aspect of the meeting was how it provided a space for strategic discussion of the need to improve systems and capacity to gather and analyze more localized (i.e., zip code/census tract/neighborhood) data on morbidity, mortality, social, economic, and environmental indicators to inform local and regional program and policy development, with a particular focus on social determinants of health and health equity. There was considerable enthusiasm in the group to continue to work together toward that goal, and IPHi will facilitate that collaborative work moving forward.

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