Community Voting Is Now Open!
Cast your vote now to help select the winner of the Health Equity Datathon. Voting is open starting Tuesday, March 28th, and closes on Thursday, March 30th. VOTE HERE >>“Overall, I would say that it was a good learning opportunity for real world application of data analytics and visualization.” “…I couldn’t recommend participating in competitions like these enough!”
Aaron
- TOP 3 REASONS TO PARTICIPATE:
- Network and Build Your Resume!
- Really good FREE food and snacks!
- Make an Impact – Contribute to Creating Healthy Communities!
THE CHALLENGE
Across the state of CA, public health departments are tasked with tailoring interventions and targeting resources to meet the needs of our many diverse communities. Unsurprisingly, addressing COVID-19 related health disparities ranks among the top priorities for advancing health equity and addressing “upstream” health and equity factors, such as the social determinants of health (SDoH, https://www.cdc.gov/about/sdoh/index.html).
Public health professionals rely on various data to inform policy and decision-making, but often run into significant limitations in what they can learn from this data and communicate to the public, for a variety of reasons.
Some examples of challenges cited by analysts include:
- standard race and ethnicity categories are not conducive to learning about the impact on specific minority communities (e.g., Hmong, Mein)
- the impacts of COVID-19 (beyond illness and death) on economic opportunities, poverty rates, and other conditions that allow for healthy, happy populations are not yet as well defined and available for “before and after” analysis
- while the general public has become more familiar with infectious disease related data due to the pandemic, there is still a need to present data-supported statements that are both accurate and easily accessible for people at every level of data/scientific literacy
Your challenge for the datathon is two fold:
- Use the data sources provided to explore what health equity issues exist in CA cities and counties. What specific disparities, issues, and needs can you identify to serve a specific county, city, or community?
- It’s time to “go viral”! Come up with a way to communicate one (or more) of your findings to the public. Winners of the challenge will be chosen by community voting, so you want to craft a message that’s clear, supported by your analysis, and accessible to a broad audience. You can make a visualization, infographic, short video (social media friendly length – 1 or 2 minutes, max.), or…? Have fun and be creative!
THE DATA
You will need to use data/information from at least one of the following sources:
California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal: https://data.chhs.ca.gov/
CDC Vulnerability Index: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/index.html
Rural Health Data: https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/statistics-and-data
Healthy Places Index: https://www.healthyplacesindex.org/
HELPFUL RESOURCES
Tour of California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal
Do No Harm Guide: https://www.urban.org/research/publication/do-no-harm-guide-applying-equity-awareness-data-visualization
AskCHIS is an online health query system that draws upon the responses of more than 20,000 Californians interviewed each year by The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) – the largest state health survey in the United States.: https://ask.chis.ucla.edu/
AskCHIS Neighborhood Edition (AskCHIS NE) provides health estimates for California’s diverse population at the local level (census tracts, zip codes and cities). https://askchisne.ucla.edu/
[EXAMPLE] EVE (Evaluating Vulnerability and Equity) Model: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/dd99406eb64f49c991e1314673e249b9
PROJECT SUBMISSION AND VOTING
Project Submission Start and End Times
Project submission opens on Sunday, March 26th at 9 pm (local time). Project submission closes on Monday, March 27th at 11:59 pm (local time). [Click here to view project submission form.]
Eligibility for Voting and Prizes
To be eligible for a prize, your team and/or project MUST:
- Be relevant to the challenge topic of health equity in CA (at any geographic level in the state)
- Clearly show how at least one of the data sources listed in the “DATA” section of the datathon page were integrated into your project.
- Provide a publicly viewable link to your “communication piece” (e.g., visualization, infographic, up to 1 or 2 minute long video).
- Make sure that your project does not contain profanity or inappropriate language
- Complete all of the required fields on the project submission page.
- All eligible entries will be acknowledged with a prize!
Community Voting
The winners of the Health Equity Datathon will be selected by “the public”. Voting opens at 12:00 pm on Tuesday, March 28th, and closes on Thursday, March 30th, at 11:59 pm. All project submissions that meet the criteria detailed in “Eligibility for Voting and Prizes” will be showcased on the community voting page.
Before voting begins, you will receive the link to the voting page, and you are strongly encouraged to share it with your network to get more votes for your project!
EVENT SCHEDULE
NOTE: All in-person events will take place on Chico State Campus, in HOLT 268
- Thursday, 3/23, 4 -6 p.m.: In person + live streaming kick-off event. Free food and goodies. Network with teams and subject-matter experts, and get a jumpstart on your project!
- Thursday, 3/23 through Monday, 3/27: Teams work on their data projects remotely. Subject matter experts and mentors will be available via chat, email, or Zoom to answer questions and assist.
- Monday, 3/27: Teams submit their datathon project results by midnight in order to be acknowledged and compete for prizes.
- Tuesday, 3/28 through Thursday, 3/30: Teams recruit their networks to vote for their project by leaving a comment on their page in the online ballot.
- Friday, 3/31: In person + live streaming wrap-up event, 4-5 p.m. Join us for refreshments and the announcement of prize winners!
Meet Our Mentors
Here to help you succeed!
Alica Rodman
Program Supervisor
Butte County Public Health
Elena Reyes
Analyst
Butte County Public Health
Michelle Weidman
Public Health Policy and Program Analyst
Shasta County Health and Human Services – Public Health Branch
Krishan Bhakta
Research Specialist
Riverside University Health System