City Health Dashboard Around the World: Three international Dashboard users share how they’re using our data

The City Health Dashboard is celebrating World Health Day! Every year on April 7th, the international community comes together to raise awareness about important issues, recent trends, and advancements taking place in health.

The Dashboard was built to help leaders in the United States’ 500 largest cities easily see where their city or neighborhood stands on more than 35 key measures of health and the drivers that shape it. Yet, almost as soon as the Dashboard was launched, we heard from many people outside the United States who were accessing our tool and exploring our data. In the spirit of World Health Day, we were interested in learning more about these international users, what they are working on, and how the Dashboard has been helpful.

 “I want to do something similar in my community”

Dave Jackson, Chief Technology Officer, is responsible for the technical strategy of Airdrie & Area Health Cooperative, a health startup in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada. He found the Dashboard while researching innovative tools that use data visualizations to tell stories and motivate people to action. He views the Dashboard as a model of what can be implemented in Airdrie to drive positive health outcomes. The Dashboard has also been useful as a resource to guide interdisciplinary discussions about communicating data for diverse audiences and informed decision-making.

 “Holistic, accurate investigations of health”

Ali Ameen, a PhD student in Urban Planning, is conducting research on the relationship between the built environment and health. He is in the midst of a project on active mobility in Sydney, Australia and has relied on the Dashboard as a template for making the connection between urban design and health more explicit in his work.

“We need to do more for community empowerment and development”

Athan Tsakiridis, a nurse at a community health organization in Germany, is working on a community health program that seeks to promote inclusion, empowerment, and community development in low-income areas. He was interested in learning more about our measure selection process and how we identified these particular factors as markers of “community health,” to help guide development conversations with his partners.

We’re proud that members of the international health community have identified the Dashboard as a local level-data model in their communities and have applied our lessons to their unique contexts. As we celebrate World Health Day, we want to acknowledge all the great work being done around the world to advance health and equity for all.

How are you using the Dashboard in your community? Let us know on Twitter @cityhealthdata or email us at [email protected]