Get to know your neighborhood with the new NYU Grossman data tool

NYU Grossman School of Medicine has launched a new online tool that displays key health data for all 435 US congressional districts.

Researchers at the Grossman School of Medicine at New York University launched an online panel which they hope politicians will use to make health policy decisions. The dashboard tracks 36 categories of data including health outcomes, social and economic factors, health behaviors, physical environment and clinical care in 435 constituencies across the country.

According to the Congressional District Health Dashboard, 10th District of New York — where NYU’s Washington Square campus is located — was rated as having a 10 out of 10 risk of lead exposure in 2020, compared to the national average of 5.5. Residents in the area have a 44.1% chance of being infected by housing, much higher than the US average of 17.2%.

In 2018, medical school scientists also created the City Health Dashboard, a similar database for more than 900 cities across the country that includes data on more than 40 health indicators. While the City Health Dashboard is focused on neighborhoods and communities in cities, the new Congressional District Health Dashboard is designed to serve the needs of state and federal policy makers.

Becky Ofrein, co-program manager and program administration for the Health Dashboard, said some of the areas she hopes the report will be most effective in helping lawmakers improve maternal and child health, access to health insurance and broadband coverage — and reduce impact lead.

“We had to do this on a very tight schedule because the congressional district boundaries were redrawn in 2022 based on the 2020 Census,” Ofran said. “We had to go from state to state to collect these new geographic boundary files because they weren’t widely published in the US Census by the time we developed the site.”

The dashboard is updated by health and policy experts when raw data sources become available that researchers use to calculate health metrics, which typically happens once a year, according to Ben Spoer, co-director of dashboard metrics and analytics. programs.

“Our team hopes that it will put forward and focus on health disparities, especially in relation to social and economic factors that affect health,” Ofran said. “In a time of divided government and big politics, our team hopes this data can really shed some light on some of the actions that politicians can take on health and equity.”

Contact Jenny Seo at [email protected]