Three Projects Receive Inaugural State and Local Innovation Prize

In Chicago, they are preventing lead poisoning in young children. In Chatham County, Georgia, they are building a continuity of care system for jail inmates, and in Washington State, they are using multiple data sets to coordinate care for dual eligibles.

Meet the winners of the inaugural Milbank Memorial Fund and AcademyHealth State and Local Innovation Prize, developed to recognize state and local efforts to leverage data to improve the health of populations and the performance of health systems.

More than 40 applicants responded to the call for nominations. A group of expert reviewers looked for projects that demonstrated innovation in overcoming traditional public sector barriers and challenges to leveraging data for policy and programs; measurable impact on specific metrics of population health; sustainability of effort and likely future impact on policy and programs; and the potential to scale and/or replicate.

The winner, the Chicago Childhood Lead Paint Data-Sharing Project, and two runners-up were announced this past April at Health Datapalooza, AcademyHealth’s conference that promotes increased access to and use of publicly available data to improve the health of populations.

“Health happens in the community,” said Christopher F. Koller, president of the Milbank Memorial Fund. “All three of our finalists were responding to unique local challenges with hard work, strong relationships, and 21^st century technology.”

These case studies tell the story of the three winning projects—the problems they solved, the inspiration behind their developments, and the opportunities for innovation they uncovered. It is our hope that these case studies—and the new annual prize—will continue to demonstrate how the smart use of data is critical to transforming health care delivery.

“The bridge between data and policy is informed analysis,” said Lisa Simpson, AcademyHealth president. “We are pleased to identify these examples of local leadership using publicly available data to make health care demonstrably better for their communities.”