Health care data, whether public, private or person-generated, is a critical component of health services research and our quest to understand what works, for whom, in what circumstances and at what cost – these data can and should be embedded throughout our ecosystem to produce actionable evidence to improve health and health care.
At last year’s Health Datapalooza we celebrated the significant progress over the last 10 years to liberate health care data and support their use – but there is much more to do. We have to democratize access to higher quality data while redoubling our efforts to protect patient confidentiality. We have to collectively assess which of the ever-expanding tools to analyze and use data to make health care decisions is the best one for particular applications. And there remain significant issues in harnessing the promise of data to improve health for individuals and communities.
We believe now is the perfect time to focus intently on how we definitively embed this work in the fabric of the health system and as a first step, we’re excited to bring two critical parts of our diverse community together. In 2020, the annual Health Datapalooza will be co-located with AcademyHealth’s National Health Policy Conference, February 10-11, 2020. Given how important federal and state policymaking is to Datapalooza, we are excited to see these two communities come together to discuss a path forward to improving health and health care.
Each meeting will have dedicated content – plenaries, breakouts and unconference sessions – along with new opportunities to engage in expansive discussions with participants “across the hall.” You will have the choice to enjoy the Health Datapalooza and NHPC independently, or to build your own agenda from whichever sessions fuel your interests and passions.
Speaking of that agenda…now is your chance to shape the content of these co-located events! As of today, we’re looking for your best ideas for presentations as well as calling for volunteers to serve as reviewers to pick the presentation to be included for both Health Datapalooza and the National Health Policy Conference. The deadline for reviewers is Sept. 19 and presentations are due Sept. 24 so now is the time to prepare your applications.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with!