Each year since 2009, NAHDO has honored an organization with the distinguished Innovation in Data Dissemination Award. The NAHDO Board of Directors established this award to recognize the importance of effectively communicating health data to the public.
While the Elliot M. Stone Award of Excellence in Health Leadership is intended for an individual, the Innovation in Data Dissemination Award is designed to be awarded to an organization. The NAHDO Board of Directors established this award in 2009 to recognize the importance of effectively communicating health data to the public. Eligible organizations may be government agencies, non-profit organizations, or for-profit companies, and data dissemination efforts might include Websites, advertising campaigns, written reports, or a combination of these and other communication initiatives.
The 2023 Awardees
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Nicole Fawcett presenting the award to Anup Srikumar, Virginia Dept of Health |
Leanne Candura presenting the award to Kristin Paulson, CIVHC |
The Virginia Department of Health - Optimizing accessibility and enhancing user experience in various public-facing COVID-19 content
The COVID-19 workgroup of professionals from the Division of Informatics and Information Systems (DIIS), Center for Public Health Informatics (CPHI), and the Division of Surveillance and Investigation (DSI) demonstrated extraordinary commitment and effort to optimize accessibility and enhance user experience in various public-facing COVID-19 content. This initiative was undertaken with a laser-focused aim to create a barrier-free information dissemination platform, rendering it as an instrumental resource during this critical period of the pandemic. The workgroup’s pioneering endeavor, which included the meticulous redesign of dashboards, webpages, and public-use data sets, showcases their unwavering commitment to advancing accessibility. They met the complex challenge of ensuring inclusivity and clarity in a rapidly changing, data-heavy landscape. The innovative solutions they implemented resulted in substantial improvements in data readability, visual appeal, and user navigation, making vital pandemic-related information accessible to a broader audience. One of the group’s noteworthy accomplishments includes the successful elimination of barriers to accessibility by refining the content of the dashboards. This process necessitated an in-depth understanding of user requirements and the ability to translate complex data into a universally understandable format. This is indicative of their deep commitment to accessibility and inclusivity. The workgroup also demonstrated an exceptional ability to communicate complex information through simple language. This substantial enhancement in the clarity of information effectively addressed potential comprehension challenges, ensuring that critical public health messages were accessible and understandable to all. Equally impressive was the group’s ability to streamline menus and navigation systems. These improvements greatly improved the user experience, making it easier for users to locate and understand critical data and information. Moreover, the team’s decision to revise the layout and design to suit evolving data visualization needs is indicative of their adaptive approach. By increasing font size, boosting color and contrast, they improved readability and visual appeal of the content. They also integrated data tables to facilitate user-customized data extraction, exemplifying their user-centered approach. In summary, the COVID-19 workgroup has demonstrated remarkable dedication to fostering a universal design approach. Their contributions have ensured equitable access to vital pandemic information for all users, regardless of their technical skills or abilities. The webpage involves six distinct datasets and streamlines this into a consistent and understandable dashboard to create a singular message for the commonwealth about the impact COVID is having in Virginia. Their efforts truly encapsulate the ethos of this award, making them deserving of this honor.
The Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC) - Health Equity Analysis Dashboard
In the past few years, CIVHC has greatly expanded their suite of dissemination products. These products successfully illustrate the many different areas that the Colorado All Payer Claims Database (CO APCD) can be used for by consumers, communities, organizations, policymakers, and other stakeholders to support the drive towards the Triple Aim framework for all Coloradans, other state populations and nationwide: better health, better care, and lower costs. Through strategic collaborations and partnerships and continuously scanning for topics of high interest for these stakeholders, CIVHC has conceptualized, developed and published a series of reports, infographics, and downloadable data files that improve the public’s awareness about health and healthcare use and cost in Colorado and provide access to timely, reliable and actionable information—cornerstones of outstanding dissemination activities.
Additionally, CIVHC promotes engagement with these dissemination products, as well as with the CO APCD and other data resources, in a few important ways: (a) by organizing the ‘Data to Drive Decisions’ webinar series to introduce new reports and related resources to targeted audiences, (b) by transforming complex analyses into user-friendly summaries or insights in the form of infographics, Data Bytes and Data Dives, and (c) by providing access to methodological and technical notes and other data and analytic resources to supplement the available reports and ensure transparency around the data sources, analytic decisions and measures used, strategies for maintaining data and reporting quality, and clarifying the process that external users would have to go through for acquiring the data for their own analyses.
The award particular recognizes CIVHC's successful implementation of the Health Equity Analysis dashboard for its innovative and successful approach in making useful data available to the public.
Past recipients
2011 - Virginia Health Information (VHI)
2012 - Department of Health and Human Services Health Data Initiative (HDI)
2013 - Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC) & Treo Solutions
2015 - No Award
2016 - Maine Health Data Organization
2017 - No Award
2018 - Washington All-Payer Claims Database’s new HealthCareCompare website
2019 - Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA)
2020 - Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative
2021 - New England States Consortium Systems Organization & Delaware Health Information Network
2023 -The Virginia Department of Health, Center for Public Health Informatics and Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC)