Assessing the current state of public health data in a time of pandemic to seek opportunities for transformation to an equity-oriented system

The Foundation's initiative, Transforming Public Health Data Systems to Advance Health Equity, was designed to fund national analyses and timely, short-term grantmaking to inform an expert panel that will recommend a comprehensive approach to support the transformation of data-related policies and practices in public health and health-related sectors to improve health equity, as well as recommend directions for RWJF's future strategic funding in this area. This project will curate and synthesize the existing knowledge on data collection, data sharing, and data linkages, including related policies and practices, to highlight how emerging innovations and opportunities can transform public health practice to be more reliably data-driven and more attentive to the factors that influence health equity. The project will build on RWJF's history of data work through programs like Data Across Sectors for Health and Data for Healthier Communities but will systematize learning from these programs and the field at large in order to guide emerging conversations between researchers and practitioners on what the future of public health data and public health systems should look like in response to weaknesses being revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The deliverables will also be key inputs into RWJF's effort to build a commission that will assess the future of public health. The deliverables will include three to five white papers on topics that will be selected collaboratively with RWJF; two interim reports, including a report on feedback from RWJF grantees; and short briefing decks that summarize the reports for the eventual gathering of the commission.