Gauze and Effect Volume 2: Public Health Tips, Data Trends, and Stuff Worth Sharing
By Dr. Sarah Martin and the mySidewalk Health Squad
On All Things Mobility
Dearest readers,
I have been traveling a lot recently. This means I have had more time for long periods of uninterrupted thought. For someone who struggles with an (at times) overactive mind, this time can be a blessing and a curse. Within the span of 60 seconds, I may have thought about 30 separate things ranging from “does my son really think he can be a famous Soundcloud rapper” to “roasted turnips taste way better a few days later” to “what determines whether someone who is born poor gets rich?”
That last thought came aboard a flight from Colorado Springs → Dallas → KCMO coming home from a conference on regulatory agencies (as fun as it sounds!). By a stroke of weird luck, I was upgraded to first class. Having grown up the way I did, first class is not normal to me. This was only my third time and was by far the longest flight I had ever enjoyed unlimited champagne and hot towels on — the first being a birthday upgrade on a sub-30 minute flight to Vegas and the second being a 40 dollar upgrade on a flight out of Port Au Prince to Miami where I slept the entire time.
I had one of those moments — maybe it was the champagne plus the altitude — where I just felt a tremendous amount of awe over the fact that I have been blessed with a life so different than the one I was born into. It had me thinking of this awesome visualization my colleague Drew Stiehl made for the National League of Cities that overlays life expectancy on Raj Chetty’s Opportunity Atlas Data:
Why does one child thrive while another struggles? Why is home ownership the path to wealth equity in some metros but has no effect in others? Why do Black women die in childbirth 3–6 times more often than White women? The interaction of environments, behaviors and outcomes fascinates all of us here.
Needless to say — I’m super fun at dinner parties.
I’ve also been thinking about the difference between social determinants and social needs. Really bright minds know we can work to disrupt health inequities by addressing both, but should never confuse the two concepts. For example, the mySidewalk team was recently in Chicago meeting with the team at Now Pow. These folks are doing impressive work to more intelligently match the right patients with the right resources. They are using really elegant modeling to make sure that social needs are met. (Side note, we also had some time with one of my heroes, Raed Monsour, who is an absolute gem. This man watched me eat Poutine with BEEF gravy, and BACON, and a fried EGG before telling me he is Vegan! Poor Raed!).
As we slide into Spring, let’s keep telling the story of opportunity together. Let’s also vow to eat more Poutine (vegan or otherwise)!
PS: To our Public Health department partners — we know that you are hustling right now to keep up with the latest in Coronavirus threats. Know that we are thinking of you and respect the work you do to keep us safe!
New Year, New You, New Things!
Have you been keeping up with your “New Year, New You” challenge? If you need a reminder, take a look at our last newsletter. We are trying to take on some healthier habits around here alongside you, especially as it relates to staying healthy during work travel. Whether you are flying all over the place every other week, or you are constantly in your car seeing clients, there are some simple tips out there to stay at 100%. We love this recent article about truths and myths for travel health in the age of Coronavirus. We also adore apps like Classpass, MindBody, Sworkit and Nike Run Club for keeping us active, no matter where we are.
Dashboard Confessional: A New Era with mySidewalk Press
Friends, there are not enough words to describe how monumental our new mySidewalk product is. You may already love our templated reports, custom dashboards, and overall charm. But we’re calling 2020 the year of Encoding Your Expertise. Our goal for the year is to empower you in a big and meaningful way, so you can easily share your point of view with your stakeholders and drive progress.
This new product allows you to:
- Quickly compare places and opportunities to see where you should invest next
- Manage data transparency at scale
- Create personalized data stories for your stakeholders
- Generate compelling, automatic reports on demand
- Prove how your work impacts specific people and places
Now, at the press (get it?!?) of a button, your story transforms into something that is both replicable and personalized.
Curious what that looks like for you? Check out our page to learn more. If you think your organization might want to share your story for your community, tell us! hello@mysidewalk.com
To Florida, with love: Christmas in February
One of the most painful things on earth for many health folks is wrangling Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data. For our friends in Florida, our data team has created an awesome turn-key, optional custom library with allllll of the BRFSS core data for 2013 and 2016, pre-cut by various demographics. Having Florida envy? Hit us up and we will see if your State could be BRFSS VIP.
Click the video below to see Dr. Sarah and a fantastic green screen show off more:
Link to Video: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/xRS7zv4PvCUE68E7JDQDtZ?
Answer in the form of a question: our newest blog post
This “Can You Answer These 5 Questions About Your Community Health Data?” article we just dropped includes hot takes, good advice, and a story about a crushing defeat on a game show.
Inspo of the Month
It hasn’t even dropped yet, but we already pre-ordered this book by Daniel Dawes:
Customers Crushing That Are Crushing It
- The new JOCO dashboard from Johnson County Health (KS) is a sight to behold. They pulled out all the stops and gorgeous infographics, to show that even #1 RWJF Health Rankings counties have challenges too. Fair warning, their section on Social Connection will make you shed a tear or two.
- Clay County, Florida DOH is about to launch their first CHIP using the new mySidewalk template. They also just made the most amazing business cards, including a QR code to their site and the tagline, “Your virtual sidewalk through Clay.” This is so amazing it made us question why we didn’t think of it first. Bonus, they also pushed us to focus on the reading grade level of our words — which was a true lesson in humility. It’s also why we are all now strict devotees of the Hemingway App.
- We see you Oakland County, Michigan! Our partners were recently featured on the news showing off their new wraparound service model for health outreach. If you look in the background, you will see some big ol’ mySidewalk maps their team made… which is the equivalent of when we went to the Today Show and tried to play it cool on the other side of the giant window behind Savannah Guthrie.
