Sharing Data Across Sectors: National Tools and Local Examples

Systematically analyzing data from multiple sectors can help illuminate the many factors that influence health locally, serving as catalyst for community partners to take action to improve health and equity. Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH) and County Health Rankings & Roadmaps co-hosted a webinar to provide tools and case studies for communities in the earlier stages of data sharing across sectors.

The webinar provided an overview of national efforts to connect communities across the country through County Health Rankings & Roadmaps and All In: Data for Community Health, a peer learning network. Two collaborations working at the local level to collect and use multi-sector data for community health improvement from Chicago, IL and Trenton, NJ were highlighted.

Local Case Studies

Health Forward/Salud Adelante

Alice Setrini, an attorney with Cook County’s Legal Assistance Foundation (LAF), shared a medical-legal partnership that leverages integrated data to address health-harming legal needs (e.g. violence, immigration, re-entry from the justice system, substance abuse, etc.). Health data and legal data was merged to identify areas of overlap between poor health outcomes and social determinants that could be targeted with legal interventions. The collaboration also facilitated educational events and conducted surveys and focus groups to identify unmet needs from the perspective of residents and youth.

A new service model was created where care coordinators from Cook County Health & Hospital System provide referrals to attorneys for patients with unmet legal needs. After the legal intervention, the attorneys share information about the status of the referral with care coordinators to close the loop for providers.

Trenton Transformation: A Safe & Healthy Corridor

Martha Davidson, Senior Director of Trenton Health Team, shared how her collaboration has evolved from a nascent partnership of health care organizations working to identify strategies to reduce avoidable ER use to a robust multi-sector collaboration including social service agencies, behavioral health providers, the faith community, and area colleges and universities.

The collaboration recently developed a program to use the Trenton Health Information Exchange (HIE) to notify faith-based organizations about the hospital admissions of participating congregants so that they can deliver an evidence-based health education curriculum to those clients. In addition, they are funded by the BUILD Health Challenge to overlay housing data on vacant properties with clinical data from the HIE to develop targeted interventions that foster healthier, safer environments.

National Tools and Resources

DASH and County Health Rankings & Roadmaps share a common mission to curate and disseminate promising data-driven approaches to address factors impacting health. Many resources are available to assist communities including:

  • County Health Rankings and Roadmaps
    • Annual Rankings Data: Access county-level data that provides a snapshot of factors – like education, poverty and income – that affect health and identify areas that can be addressed by local multi-sector collaborations.
    • Visit the Action Center to get step-by step guidance and resources for moving from data to action and view the Partner Center to learn how to find and engage the right set of multi-sector partners for your desired goal.
  • All In: Data for Community Health
    • All In Website: Learn more about how to get involved with the All In, a learning network of communities working to systematically share data to improve health outcomes. Browse blog posts and review upcoming opportunities and events.
    • All In Online Community: Join a virtual collaboration platform to engage in discussions with 500+ professionals engaged in data sharing projects and access a searchable library of people, projects, tools, and resources.

A more detailed list of webinar resources and discussion group resources were also shared after the webinar and interactive Q&A follow-up conversation.

Learn more

Materials from this webinar can be found in the webinar resource bundle on the All In online community. To receive monthly updates about happenings across All In, sign up for the All In newsletter.