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HealthDAT San Diego

A new resource to improve San Diego's population health by bridging research and practice.

Are you concerned about San Diego's population health? Are you responsible for the delivery of health education, prevention, care management, primary care, hospital, or other health services? The Institute for Public Health at SDSU has partnered with UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) to establish the infrastructure for collaboration between researchers and practitioners to improve population health and reduce health disparities. The IPH was established in 1992 to serve as a bridge between research and practice including the education and training of future public health researchers and practitioners. ACTRI was established in 2010 to support basic, translational, and clinical research throughout the San Diego region and to facilitate the training and education of the next generation of researchers. Together they are building a web-based and in-person infrastructure to improve San Diego's population health through collaboration.

The key elements of HealthDAT include:

1. A web portal that contains the following elements:
   1. Data describing the population health and well-being of San Diegans at the neighborhood level including morbidity and mortality indicators for many health conditions, behaviors, social determinants of health, and demographics. Maps displaying rates of health and diseases and health disparities.
   2. Best practices to address the health and social service challenges experienced by San Diegans.
   3. Resources available at the San Diego neighborhood level (clinical services, special programs, educational programs etc.) to address health problems and health disparities.
   4. Linkages to local academics who are currently working in specific health content areas such that academic/community partnerships can be formed to conduct expanded community engaged research with the goal of improving San Diego's population health.
2. In-person and web-based training and technical assistance for community agencies in order to assist them to understand and effectively use population health data to seek funding for needed services, to improve their programs, and to expand their understanding of health disparities, high risk neighborhoods, and the causes of these disparities.
3. The development of collaborative working groups, data user groups, research/practice partnerships, and community leaders that understand population health data and can effectively use it to advocate for improved population health services and policies.

The HealthDAT website is planned to go live sometime early 2018.

Last Updated: 10/20/2016