The NYU Langone Medical Center's population health department and the NYU Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, both based in New York City, will expand their City Health Dashboard to 500 additional cities over the next two years, thanks to a $3.4 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The City Health Dashboard, which the organizations developed in partnership with the National Resource Network, provides city leaders and community organizations with up-to-date data on 26 city-level public health measures, such as food access, opioid deaths and primary care physician coverage.
The online population health tool draws data from federal and state government resources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, CDC and Environmental Protection Agency. Through the tool's data visualization component, users can compare their residents' health against cities and neighborhoods nationwide.
NYU Langone Medical Center and NYU Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service initially launched the City Health Dashboard in four cities — Flint, Mich.; Kansas City, Kan.; Providence, R.I.; and Waco, Texas — earlier this year. Their goal is to offer the resource to U.S. cities with populations of 70,000 or more.
"Community leaders want accurate, actionable and precise data to advance initiatives that improve health, bring down costs and focus on community wellbeing," said Marc Gourevitch, MD, chair of the NYU Langone Medical Center's population health department and the program's principal architect. "There is an old adage: 'what gets measured is what gets done.'"