Development of Public Health Indicator Visualization Tool

Authors' Affiliations

Jean Marie Nshimiyimana, Department of Computing, College of Business and Technology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Oluwafeyisayo Oyeniyi, Department of Computing, College of Business and Technology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Mathew Seiler, Department of Computing, College of Business and Technology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Kimberly Hawkins, Department of Computing, College of Business and Technology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Temitope Adeyanju, Department of Computing, College of Business and Technology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.

Location

White Top Mtn

Start Date

4-12-2019 9:00 AM

End Date

4-12-2019 2:30 PM

Poster Number

110

Faculty Sponsor’s Department

Computing

Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Ferdaus Kawsar

Classification of First Author

Graduate Student-Master’s

Type

Poster: Competitive

Project's Category

Data Analysis, Information Management, Software Engineering, Health Information Technology, Public Health, Quality of Life, Rural Health, Urban Health

Abstract or Artist's Statement

As the public and government officials become aware of the impact of public health on communities, it is important that relevant public health statistics be available for decision making. Existing web resources have limited visualization options, cannot visually compare a county to all others in the US, and cannot compare the counties in an arbitrary region to all others in the US. The College of Public Health Indicator Visualization Tool (CPHIVT) is a web application providing visualization and ranking for a county in the US in comparison to all counties for a specific health indicator. An iterative development methodology was used to complete major features and refine the features over time. Features divided into small tasks that could be completed within two-week cycles. After the first version of the web application was completed and presented to the client, client feedback on the application was used to refine specifications and was incorporated into planning for future iterations. Iterative development was adopted with a focus on improving and expanding existing features and making the application publicly available online. A suite of automated user interface tests is being developed to verify the application’s functions. Making a complete version of the application publicly available involves significant research and software configuration to deploy the web application in a secure and performant manner. The web application has two major components corresponding to its two major user groups. The first component allows authenticated users from the Department of Public Health to upload and manage sets of data for various health indicators. Tools are included to automatically process uploaded data points. This allows the information presented on the web site to be expanded and kept up to date over time with minimal effort. The second component is accessible to anyone and allows a user to choose to a state or county with text search or hierarchical navigation. The application then provides graphical charts showing that location’s standing for various health indicators compared to all other counties nationally. This is accomplished by applying percentile rankings to the counties and plotting the percentiles against the values for a selected indicator. A user can save a generated chart to a variety of export formats including PNG image or PDF document. The application is expected to serve as a tool for many community members. Staff and students at the College of Public Health will use this tool for presentations and research. County health departments will be able to use the tool when planning community programs. County government leaders can use this tool to determine areas of need in the community. Decision makers will have the ability to visualize their county or region as compared to the nation, not just to neighboring counties or within a state.

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Apr 12th, 9:00 AM Apr 12th, 2:30 PM

Development of Public Health Indicator Visualization Tool

White Top Mtn

As the public and government officials become aware of the impact of public health on communities, it is important that relevant public health statistics be available for decision making. Existing web resources have limited visualization options, cannot visually compare a county to all others in the US, and cannot compare the counties in an arbitrary region to all others in the US. The College of Public Health Indicator Visualization Tool (CPHIVT) is a web application providing visualization and ranking for a county in the US in comparison to all counties for a specific health indicator. An iterative development methodology was used to complete major features and refine the features over time. Features divided into small tasks that could be completed within two-week cycles. After the first version of the web application was completed and presented to the client, client feedback on the application was used to refine specifications and was incorporated into planning for future iterations. Iterative development was adopted with a focus on improving and expanding existing features and making the application publicly available online. A suite of automated user interface tests is being developed to verify the application’s functions. Making a complete version of the application publicly available involves significant research and software configuration to deploy the web application in a secure and performant manner. The web application has two major components corresponding to its two major user groups. The first component allows authenticated users from the Department of Public Health to upload and manage sets of data for various health indicators. Tools are included to automatically process uploaded data points. This allows the information presented on the web site to be expanded and kept up to date over time with minimal effort. The second component is accessible to anyone and allows a user to choose to a state or county with text search or hierarchical navigation. The application then provides graphical charts showing that location’s standing for various health indicators compared to all other counties nationally. This is accomplished by applying percentile rankings to the counties and plotting the percentiles against the values for a selected indicator. A user can save a generated chart to a variety of export formats including PNG image or PDF document. The application is expected to serve as a tool for many community members. Staff and students at the College of Public Health will use this tool for presentations and research. County health departments will be able to use the tool when planning community programs. County government leaders can use this tool to determine areas of need in the community. Decision makers will have the ability to visualize their county or region as compared to the nation, not just to neighboring counties or within a state.