The Brooklyn Health Map: Reflections on a Health Dashboard Visualizing Connections between Social Factors and Health Outcomes in Brooklyn, NY

Abstract

The internet is often the first source that individuals use to find health-related information, because of the general abundance and ease of accessing information online. However, limited health data literacy skills and other barriers can make it difficult for users to locate and utilize the relevant and reliable health information that they need. Moreover, the various data scales used to report health information can oversimplify the nuances at the community level. Libraries and librarians are well positioned to connect individuals with relevant health information. Librarians, as information specialists, can be ideal creators of tools and resources that can help communicate impactful health information to individuals and communities in ways that are easier to understand, without losing vital details and integrity. This article presents reflections on the newly developed interactive community health dashboard, titled the Brooklyn Health Map, which focuses on Brooklyn, New York. The dashboard collects, organizes, and visualizes publicly available health information at three levels of geography (i.e., census tract, zip code, and neighborhood), in the form of maps, graphs, and data summaries to facilitate data discoverability and access. It lays out the major considerations in the development of the tool and reports on initial outcomes and opportunities that have emerged in the time since the tool has been created.

Keywords:

• Library
• instruction
• health data
• health dashboard
• geospatial data
• web mapping

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Shipeng Sun for his valuable advice and assistance while developing this tool. I would also like to thank the Brooklyn College Cancer Center for funding provided in support of the research and development of the Brooklyn Health Map. Finally, I want to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions, which helped me to improve the quality of this manuscript.