Open-source Spatial Visualization for Public Health Intelligence

Project Summary

Linda Adams (CompSci), Amanda Jankowski (Sociology, Global Health), and Jessica Needleman (Statistics/Economics) spent ten weeks prototyping small-area mapping of public-health information within the Durham Neighborhood Compass, with a focus on mortality data. They worked closely with the director of DataWorks NC, an independent data intermediary dedicated to democratizing the use of quantitative information.

Themes and Categories
Public Policy
Data+
Year
2017
Contact
Paul Bendich
Mathematics
bendich@math.duke.edu

Project Results: The team created a publically-available R Shiny app that enables users to interactively visualize Durham County mortality rates at a variety of geographic levels. They also built an app which allows the visualization of more fine-grained, sensitive information for internal use by county health departments. Finally, they worked with the East Durham Children's Initiative, a nonprofit organization that works to develop and coordinate services to meet the needs of children. The team was able to create a geospatial shape file that provides mortality data specifically tailored to the EDCI service area.

Click here for the Executive Summary

Project Leads:

John Killeen, Durham Neighborhood Compass

Project Managers:

Libby McClure

 

 

 

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