First we get started today with our sit-down interview with the Boston University dean of the
School of Public Health Sandra Galea, here to talk a little bit more how health data will be used in
decision making when it comes to public health. Thanks for your time this morning. Thank you for
having me. First let's start off with defining exactly what we mean when we talk about health
data. When we think about health data historically we have thought about things like electronic
health records, data about your doctor's appointment, data about your blood pressure and
about your cholesterol when you see your doctor, but as we recognize that health is produced not
just by medicine, health is produced by the world around us. This is APHA. It's all about
understanding that health is produced by the air air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we
eat, our jobs, our environment. One realizes that we need data on those forces as well in order to
understand health so what we have been trying to do is to push the conversation and to say if there
are these determinants of health that we've called historically the social determinants of health
that we need data about those determinants to also inform how we understand health. Okay and so
to that point there has been a 3D commission that has put together a report. This is a joint effort
between Boston University and the Rockefeller Foundation? Correct. Let's talk about that. Yeah
so the commission is called 3D because it's data, determinants and decision making, so the idea was
how do we think about collecting data from these multiple sources to the end of understanding the
full set of forces that generate health so that we can make better decisions so that policy
makers can make decisions that actually improve health. Now that's actually quite a shift from how
we typically have done this because really it has been data about health outcomes that have fit into
policy, meaning percent of people with diabetes, percent of people who have heart attacks,
prevalence of cancer, so really we have used data strictly from the place of the health outcome so
measuring measuring health. That still remains important and now what we're saying is we should
extend our lens on data to understand what drives health and in doing so we can make decisions about
how to optimize what drives health to keep people healthy. And so the 3D commission has published
report about a year ago about their findings. Are there any key aspects from that report that you'd
like to highlight? Yeah the judicial commission came up with a set of principles and a set of
recommendations. So number one is we need to move beyond thinking about data as a single
narrow stream, the data that's collected on the way and go to my doctor's office,
to collecting data about the world around us, that's number one. Number two is once you do
that you need a system of accountability to that data and a system of transparency about how that
data then goes on to introduce decisions that shape policy. So it really elevates our game
of engagement with that and feeding that in a way that is translatable, understandable to those who
are in a position to make decisions that shape the population itself so it is a much more dynamic and
engaged view of collecting data about everything that shapes are held and a system of putting
responsibility in all of us to act on those data to create better health. When you're talking about
you know an environmental uh taking environmental data and applying it to someone's health you're
talking about not only looking at my blood pressure, my cholesterol levels, but also taking
into account what might be in the water that I'm drinking. Well that's correct, I think most maybe
not but also things like minimum wages, so for example data about minimum wage and the extent
to which different minimum wages are associated with people's health that should be part of the
conversation when there are conversations about setting minimum wages. Data about types of cities
and building codes and different urban planning and how does that influence decisions that are
made about building and cities and what are the implications of that for health? Data about
any range of forces in the world, so yes water quality, air quality,
from point of view of climate and and all that. So really it's saying that if we know there is
no health without a healthy world, well then we should be measuring the elements that make
the world healthy so that we can actually move us in that direction. Fascinating, all right,
how do you think that the growth and maturity of data science will help our understanding of social
determinants in the future? Yeah I feel quite optimistic about this and that there is as you
correctly say there is an explosion of interest in data science. And population health science
is about collecting the data and analyzing it to the end of understanding what generates health
and what generates health equity and we haven't talked much about health equities just to put
it in a conversation that what we're doing is not simply improving health but also narrowing
health gaps. It is not good enough to simply say we're going to improve health on aggregate
if some people are held left behind. We are beginning to recognize they're having big data,
data with large volume that we collect quickly to inform our understanding of the world around
us is becoming much more commonplace and we're getting better and better at learning how what to
do with that and all of those data should be then informing the decisions we make to optimize our
environment. Fascinating, all right well thank you so much for your time this morning. Thanks
for breaking it down for the layman like me, certainly appreciate it. Thank you for having me.
foreign