Special Communication
Supporting rural public health practice to address local-level social determinants of health across Northwest states: Development of an interactive visualization dashboard

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2022.104051Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • SHARE-NW: Solutions in Health Analytics for Rural Equity across the Northwest is a dashboard designed with and for rural health practitioners.

  • We applied user-centered design methods, visualization literature, and a visualization model by Munzner to develop the dashboard.

  • This paper describes our methods, lessons learned, and recommendations for developers of public health dashboards.

  • The SHARE-NW dashboard is available at sharenw.nwcphp.org.

Abstract

Background

Rural local health departments (LHDs) lack adequate capacity and funding to effectively make data-driven decisions to support their communities that face greater health disparities compared to urban counterparts. The need, therefore, exists for informatics solutions to support rural LHDs.

Purpose

We describe the user-centered design (UCD) of SHARE-NW: Solutions in Health Analytics for Rural Equity across the Northwest, a website (sharenw.nwcphp.org) with data visualization dashboards for rural LHD practitioners in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to help them identify health disparities in their jurisdictions.

Methods

In this UCD study guided by Munzner’s Nested Model for Visualization Design and Validation, we (1) completed a needs assessment, (2) created and evaluated mockups, and (3) conducted usability testing of a functional alpha testing website. Potential end-users (rural LHD practitioners) and Equity Advisory Committee members (public health experts from state, rural local, and tribal public health agencies) across our four-state catchment area were engaged throughout the website development and testing. We adapted traditional in-person UCD methods to be remote to reach participants across a large geographic area and in rural/frontier areas of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

Results

We recruited participants from all four states to engage in each stage of the project. Needs assessment findings informed the mockup development, and findings from the mockup evaluations informed the development of the functional website. Usability testing of the website overall was positive, with priority usability issues identified.

Conclusions

By applying Munzner’s Nested Model and UCD, we could purposefully and intentionally design evidence-based solutions, specifically for rural LHD practitioners. Adaptations of traditional UCD methods were successful and allowed us to reach end-users across a large geographic area. Future work on SHARE-NW will involve the evaluation of the website. We provide insights on our lessons learned to support future public health informatics solution development.

Keywords

Data visualization
Health disparities
Health equity
Informatics
Public health
Public health informatics
Rural health
User-centered design

Abbreviations

AK
Alaska
ID
Idaho
OR
Oregon
WA
Washingon
EAC
Equity Advisory Committee
LHD
Local Health Department
NACCHO
National Association of County and City Health Officials
UCD
User Centered Design
SHARE-NW
Solutions in Health Analytics for Rural Equity across the Northwest
SDOH
Social Determinants of Health
PHI
Public Health Informatics
VA
Visual Analytics
SUS
System Usability Scale
ASQ
After Scenario Questionnaire

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