For Tempe AZ, Public Health Means Being a 20-Minute City

The City of Tempe, Arizona, is using modern technology and an advanced infrastructure planning approach to enable people to make better health choices. This means ensuring everyone has access to fresh food, convenient transportation, and even adequate shade cover.  It’s all part of their “20-minute city” initiative. To achieve their goals, city leaders are using a data-informed approach, enabled through GIS technology, to identify gaps in community infrastructure and planning. Healthcare IT Today sat down with Dr. Stephanie Deitrick, Chief Data and Analytics Officer for the City of Tempe, to learn more about their public health initiatives and how it relates to being a 20-minute city. Determinants of Health According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are many factors that affect the health of communities and individuals: To a large extent, factors such as where we live, the state of our environment, genetics, our income and education level, and our relationships with friends and family all have considerable impacts on health, whereas the more commonly considered factors such as access [to health care] and use of health care services often have less of an impact. Given this statement, its clear that improving health requires a holistic review of the factors that can make people and communities either healthier or sicker. For example, we know that access to fresh food and community services are important health factors that can be challenging for ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Analytics/Big Data Communication and Patient Experience Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System City of Tempe esri GIS for Health GIS technology Health Data Health GIS Healthcare Mapping Public Health Public Health GIS Stephanie D Source Type: blogs