Next month, AcademyHealth, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will host the 2024 Health Datapalooza. This year’s Health Datapalooza will focus on the data-driven solutions that are addressing critical public health challenges. Among these challenges are the implications of artificial intelligence on health care and health services research, the need for greater interoperability among health and social services data systems, and more funding for research that elevates patient and community voices, to name a few. AcademyHealth President and CEO, Aaron Carroll, was recently featured on two podcasts in which he expanded upon these challenges, and how AcademyHealth, and specifically the Health Datapalooza, are working to address them.
Dr. Carroll brings a fresh perspective to AcademyHealth and the Health Datapalooza as a science communicator, author, columnist, and podcast host himself. In his recent guest appearance on Mathematica’s podcast On the Evidence, Dr. Carroll discusses challenges in health care, such as AI and climate change, that are often seen as mystifying and insurmountable. Dr. Carroll references progress and insights being generated across the scientific community in these areas and makes the case for more discussion across industries to tackle these challenges. In that same vein, AcademyHealth aims to facilitate greater coordination and learning across health care and public health data systems in our collaboration with the CDC on the 2024 Health Datapalooza.
On the podcast Health Hats, Dr. Carroll spoke with host Danny van Leeuwen about how communicating for impact as well as partnering with communities and patients are priorities for him as AcademyHealth’s President and CEO. Dr. Carroll emphasizes his belief that having people with lived experience at the table, whether that’s in a research lab or speaking at a conference, leads to better data and evidence to improve health and health care for all. The Health Datapalooza has always been a champion for patient and community participation. Since AcademyHealth began hosting the conference in 2016, the Health Datapalooza has met patients-included criteria that ensures patients are invited as speakers, are involved in conference design and planning, and have access to financial support for travel and accommodation. This unique conference pushes the envelope in patient and community involvement with the intention of producing more accurate data and greater health outcomes for all.
Join us next month at the Health Datapalooza on September 16-17 in Washington, D.C. to hear from experts across the health care landscape and dig into the data that will inform smart policies to improve the health of our communities.