Updates + Notices
Read below for updates on the agency, our projects, and our data, as well as timely public health notices or statements
Data For Equity Part 2: Using Existing Data Creatively and Creating New Data
We’ve previously written about how meaningful access to good-quality local data is a key tool for health equity. In many communities, especially rural ones, the data needed to improve health equity simply does not exist. Or, if it does exist, it’s not meaningfully accessible to the people who need it. That’s why so much of our work at RHI is helping communities build better infrastructure for collecting and using local data. Sometimes that means finding existing data and storing, organizing, pairing, and sharing it differently so that it can actually be used. Sometimes that means creating entirely new data sets with tools like surveys or operational systems.
Data For Equity Part 1: Data Access is Health Equity
At RHI, we believe that meaningful access to data is a matter of health equity.
In many rural communities like ours, the first barrier to data access is that the data simply doesn’t exist. Too often, we find ourselves relying on national or state-level datasets that either exclude our communities entirely or smooth over the details of local experience. When local data isn’t collected, or isn’t collected with enough detail to show what’s happening across different groups, we can’t see the disparities that exist, let alone address them. If we don’t count people, we risk making them invisible in policy and practice. This is especially true for marginalized groups whose experiences are often left out of broad-scale surveys. Without robust, place-based data that reflects the reality of their lives, our systems are flying blind.