Is this good data?
By: Stephany Medina
In public health, we love data. And why wouldn’t we? Data can be harnessed to support the health and wellbeing of our communities. It’s through data that we understand the health impacts that we need to prioritize addressing.
I’ve had the pleasure of learning from local public health about some of the ways you have data drive your work.
Carlton County is analyzing workplans throughout the community to quantify gaps in strategies and understand where public health can fill in through their Well Within Reach project.
Cook County just finished an age friendly assessment, identifying how they can enhance the ways that make Cook County a great place to live throughout the lifespan.
Lake County assessed their internal environmental health data to advocate for an additional environmental inspector to join their team to provide this critical service.
St. Louis County and St. Luke’s used data to develop an intervention for hypertensive pregnancies (Heart-to-Heart). And that’s just to name a few!
When we harness data in these ways, we gain a deeper understanding of community need. But in a world with an overabundance of data and information, how do we know what we can trust? We have to consider the data source, the timeliness of the data, if the methods are transparent, and if the data is saying what we think it’s saying. There’s a lot to understanding if something is “good” data, and even “good” data can be misinterpreted.
^Actual footage of Steph realizing she misinterpreted the data and has to start the project over.*
So how do we make sure we put data into action in meaningful ways? We All Count has developed a Data Biography tool. This includes a list of questions to ask yourself when you’re reporting out data, or using data from a secondary source. Use the whole list, or the pieces of it that feel most meaningful to you. You can also create your own checklist of more specific questions you have about data source’s methods that are relevant to your program. Unsure of the answers on a Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) source? Ask them through their request form!
*As we talk about building trust in public health, I should note that “actual footage” is a bit of an exaggeration, and this is not in fact Steph in the video above.