The Summer 2017 issue of SAVI Online Magazine covers the influence of location on health. We will share with you highlights from four projects that incorporate statistics from the SAVI community information system. In each instance, data guide program and policy decisions that will have a significant impact on the health of a community’s residents and population health in general.
- Parkview Health System collaborated with The Polis Center and IU’s Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, acting jointly as the Indiana Partnership for Healthy Communities, to identify the top health concerns in Fort Wayne and the surrounding counties.
- The IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health is testing a tool that integrates medical records and neighborhood-level data to predict the best type of treatment for a patient.
- Students in public health are using SAVI in their research to more completely understand and identify the socioeconomic determinants of health.
- The report, Unequal Access: Tobacco Retail in the Indianapolis Metro Area reveals that tobacco is more readily available for purchase in areas that already struggle with quality-of-life issues.
The SAVI Community Information System allows one to focus on a particular geography and look at a health challenge in relationship to other factors, including financial stability, education, health, and culture, among others. It also allows one to see across a larger community such as a county where a health concern is concentrated and what other challenges the population in those areas face. Armed with this information, organizations and decision makers can develop a targeted solution to increase successful intervention rates.