News
CARDS Webinar: Exploring U.S. Neighborhood-Level Cancer Risk Factor Datasets
AACI will host a Catchment Area Research and Data Science (CARDS) webinar titled "Exploring U.S. Neighborhood-Level Cancer Risk Factor Datasets" at 1:00 pm eastern time on Wednesday, December 4. The webinar will be divided into three parts: PLACES: Local Data for Better Health; The Environmental Justice Index: Advancing Environmental Justice and Health Equity Through Data Visualization; and Health Atlas: Visualizing Place-Based Data Across the United States.
Todd Burus, MAS, will moderate the webinar. Burus is the data visualization specialist for the community outreach and engagement office at UK Markey Cancer Center. He serves as the lead developer on Markey's Cancer InFocus project, working to improve cancer surveillance data gathering and dissemination processes for U.S. cancer centers. He is also an Epidemiology and Biostatistics PhD candidate at the University of Kentucky with a focus on advanced statistical methods for cancer surveillance.
Part 1: PLACES: Local Data for Better Health
PLACES is a collaboration between Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the CDC Foundation. PLACES provides health data for small areas across the country, allowing local health departments and jurisdictions to better understand the burden and geographic distribution of health measures in their areas and assist them in planning public health interventions. PLACES provides model-based, population-level analysis and community estimates of health measures to all counties, incorporated and census-designated places, census tracts, and zip code tabulation areas throughout the U.S. Part 1 will include discussion of PLACES methodology and use cases and exploration of current and new mapping applications.
Presenters: Yan Wang, PhD, lead statistician, PLACES, Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch; Hua Lu, MSc, geographer, Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch and Co-PI, PLACES
Part 2: The Environmental Justice Index: Advancing Environmental Justice and Health Equity Through Data Visualization
Environmental justice screening and mapping tools allow government agencies and other entities to identify communities experiencing cumulative health impacts from environmental injustice and to prioritize these communities for policies and interventions designed to reduce inequities. There have been calls for the development of state and federal tools to measure the impacts of environmental, social, health, and climate related burdens on communities. The CDC/Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Environmental Justice Index (EJI) is the first nationwide index designed to address cumulative impacts through the lens of environmental justice and health equity. Part 2 will provide information on the EJI, including details on index calculation and structure, demonstrations, and examples of how to apply the EJI in your work.
Presenters: Ben McKenzie, MS (he/him), geospatial epidemiologist and health scientist, Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program (GRASP), CDC/ATSDR; Lauren Freelander, MS (she/her), senior geospatial epidemiologist contractor, GRASP, CDC/ATSDR
Part 3: Health Atlas: Visualizing Place-Based Data Across the United States
The UCSF Health Atlas is an interactive tool that allows users to visualize data from a variety of sources to identify and address cancer health disparities, developed under the leadership of Dr. Debby Oh. Dr. Oh's background in epidemiology and graphic design has been applied to projects including California Health Maps, Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry dashboard, and UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center dashboard. Part 3 of the webinar will explore real-world applications of data visualization tools.
Presenter: Debby Oh, PhD, University of California San Francisco
The webinar is free and open to all AACI members.