by America's Health Rankings, 11/06/2023
America’s Health Rankings sat down with leaders in the public health space to discuss how access to actionable data helps them to address key health challenges. To hear the rest of our conversations, watch the full video here.
Hannah Darr is a Master of Public Health graduate from the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.
How do you use America’s Health Rankings, as a student?
America’s Health Rankings is a reliable tool when there’s a topic that I’m interested in and don’t know a lot about. In my master’s in public health program, we do a lot of projects on the state level – this website is a great way for me to gather insights about any given state. I also leverage the website and learn more about the subpopulations that are impacted by each measure of health.
Why is access to reliable public health data important?
My public health focus is on programs and evaluations, it’s great to have a platform that has reliable data and is easy for me to use to communicate with other people.
Access to reliable data is so important because in a world that’s so data-driven, sometimes data doesn’t feel accessible to the general person. Even as someone who’s almost done with my master’s in public health, the nuances of working with and analyzing data are sometimes a bit daunting. Having a place to look at public health data quickly and reliably in a way that’s understandable is impactful.
What role does data play in shaping public health initiatives?
In public health we’re looking to implement evidence-based programs and practices to help ensure that we’re helping the people that are most impacted by a given public health issue. Having data available helps us make informed decisions on the populations that we’re seeking to target or the locations that might need a little bit of extra assistance.
Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.