DASH Awards $2M for Community Health Data Projects

Data Across Sectors for Health

Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH) has awarded ten grants, totaling $2 million, to support projects that improve health through multi-sector data sharing collaborations. DASH is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Illinois Public Health Institute, in partnership with the Michigan Public Health Institute, serves as the National Program Office for DASH and will assist grantees as they develop, implement and evaluate their funded projects.

In order to create a more accurate, robust representation of a community’s health needs, an essential first step is forming collaborations between health care, public health and other sectors, like social services, housing, education, transportation, law enforcement and the private sector. DASH grantees aim to empower communities through multisector data sharing, helping key stakeholders make better decisions that lead to lower health care costs and healthier communities.

“When it comes to improving public health, there’s a gap between the data that communities have and the data that they want and need,” says DASH Co-Director Peter Eckart at the Illinois Public Health Institute. “We expect to make progress towards closing this gap, enabling local decision-makers to develop policies and programs that have the biggest impact in reducing health disparities.”

The DASH grantees will receive up to $200,000 each to develop and implement multi-sector data sharing projects:

• Center for Health Care Services, San Antonio, TX; Using a Connected Information System to Enable Spontaneous, Shared Treatment of Adults with Severe Mental Illness
• Baltimore City Health Department, Baltimore, MD; Baltimore Falls Reduction Initiative Engaging Neighborhoods and Data (B’FRIEND)
• Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago, Chicago, IL; Childhood Lead Hazard Data Sharing Across Sectors
• Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, Dallas, TX; Food For Health: Coordinating Care Across Sectors to Improve Health among Vulnerable Populations
• The Fund for Public Health in New York, Inc., New York, NY; Building a Shared Information System Based on Neighborhood Tabulation Areas to Enhance the Community Health Improvement Capacity in New York City
• Public Health – Seattle & King County, Seattle, WA; KC DASHH: King County Data Across Sectors for Housing and Health
• HealthInfoNet, Portland, Maine; Maine Data Across Sectors for Health (DASH) Project
• Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN; Altair Accountable Care for People with Disabilities
• White Earth Reservation Tribal Council, Ogema, MN; White Earth Nation WECARE Implementation Project
• Allegheny County Health Department, Pittsburgh, PA; Allegheny County Data Sharing Alliance for Health

Read the original story at DASHconnect.org.