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Population Health 1 Visit

Factors that Influence Our Health A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) can look upstream to prevent downstream health crises. Seven of ten deaths in the United States are from chronic diseases such as heart attack, cancer, and stroke which are primarily related to risk factors such as lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption.

According to the CDC, Blue Sky Initiative, University of California at San Francisco, and Institute of the Future, behaviors and environment are responsible for 70% of the factors that influence our health, with genetics representing 20% and medical care 10%.
 
Evaluating Websites for Accuracy, Authority, Bias/Objectivity, Currency/Timeliness, and Coverage

Content on the Internet is unregulated; anyone can publish anything on the it. Look for criteria to help you evaluate websites and their content. 
 
Skelton Medical Libraries Website

You have access to all of the resoures on the Mercer Medical Libraries Website. Let your preceptor know that they have access to the resouces on this page as well. They can contact the libraries for their username and password. 
  If you are off campus, click on "Login" (right hand side of orange menu bar at top of page)
Use the login and password you use to access My Mercer. Click on "Databases". Click on the downward pointing arrow next to "Databases & Resources" to see a list of databases available to you via the Mercer Medical Libraries.

Georgia Almanacs and Encyclopedias

  New Georgia Encyclopedia   New Georgia Encylopedia
  Get background information about your county. The New Georgia Encylopedia provides access to authoritative information on people, places, events, history, and other topics about the state of Georgia. The site includes articles and images on every aspect of the state and includes links to related Internet sites.
  GeorgiaInfo   GeorgiaInfo: An Online Georgia Almanac
  An online almanac about the state of Georgia. The site offers quick facts about Georgia. Search for your county name to get information and links to other sites.

United States, State and County Statistics

  American Factfinder   American FactFinder
  American Factfinder is a search engine that provides access to the population, housing and economic data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. It can be used to retrieve data from the 2010 Census, American Community Surveys (ACS), Population Estimates, the Economic Census and other Census Bureau surveys. Unlike the every-10-year census, The American Community Survey continues all year, every year. The Census bureau randomly sample addresses in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Answers are collected to form up-to-date statistics used by many federal, state, tribal, and local leaders. Some American Community Survey questions have been asked by the census since it first began in 1790. About one in 38 households per year receives an invitation to participate in the American Community Survey. Government agencies use these statistics to help with decision making to allocate over $400 billion each year to communities.
  US Health Map   U.S. Health Map
  With this interactive map, you can explore health trends in the United States at the county level for both sexes for: 29 cancers, 21 major causes of death, life expectancy, smoking, obesity, physical activity, alcohol use, hypertension, and diabetes. Use the settings at the top to select a year, cause of death, and sex. Use the time trend menu on the right to explore time trends for specific counties. Includes U.S. County Profiles

United States and State Statistics

     America’s Health Rankings
  For nearly 3 decades, America’s Health Rankings has provided an analysis of national health on a state-by-state basis by evaluating a historical and comprehensive set of health, environmental and socioeconomic data to determine national health benchmarks and state rankings.

State and County Statistics

  Cournty Health Rankings   County Health Rankings and Roadmaps
  County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, brings together county-level health data on key health factors (how healthy a county will be in the future) and health outcomes (how healthy a county is now) from a wide range of data sources. It is the most broad and easy to access county-level health data available. County Health Rankings and Roadmaps offers recorded webinars that discuss the information available from their web site and how it can be used by communities. They also offer a project showcase that describes ways the County Health Rankings information is being used. The Roadmaps to Health Action Center provides guides and tools for improving health.
     Oasis
  OASIS is a suite of interactive tools used to access the Georgia Department of Public Health's standardized health data repository. OASIS and the Repository are designed, built and maintained by the Office of Health Indicators for Planning (OHIP).

OASIS (Online Analytical Statistical Information System) is a suite of tools used to obtain tables, maps, and charts of a variety of public health indicators. Currently, vital statistics (births, deaths, fetal deaths, induced terminations), hospital discharge, emergency room visit, STD, motor vehicle crash, and population data are included. All data can be selected by age, race, and sex (Person), state, county, and census tract / county commission district / Demographic Cluster where available (Place), and year (Time).
     OASIS Community Health Needs Assessment Dashboard
  The initial screen default is set to Georgia as a whole. The Dials represent the top 15 Causes of death. Since the selection is Georgia, the needle for each dial is lined up on the Georgia value. Select a county (or counties). Click Get Data! Notice that the needles for each dial change, as may the top causes. How the county ranks against all other counties is also indicated by needle position. Each color in the dial represents a percentile. The number next to the cause name is the total deaths for the 5 year period. Underneath each dial is the Rank based on the number of events..
  Georgia Data   GeorgiaDATA
  GeorgiaDATA provides the public with quick and easy access to Georgia county and state data. The data provided are compiled from a variety of public sources, and organized by county and topic. Users can visualize the data using maps and on-screen tools, and/or export selected data into Excel.
  USDA   USDA Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America
  Access official statistics collected and published by more than 100 federal agencies. Users can profile a state, county, federal judicial district, or congressional district to see a summary of economic and population trends, education, health care costs, and more.

County Statistics

  Community Health Status Indicators   Community Health Status Indicators
  This dataset provides key health indicators for local communities and encourages dialogue about actions that can be taken to improve community health (e.g., obesity, heart disease, cancer). This is a zip file with excel spreadsheets that contain over 200 measures for each of the 3,141 United States counties organized by demographics, leading causes of death, preventive services, measures of birth and death, etc.
  US County Profiles   U.S. County Profiles
  The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington analyzed the performance of all 3,142 US counties or county-equivalents in terms of life expectancy at birth, mortality rates for select causes, alcohol use, smoking prevalence, obesity prevalence, and recommended physical activity using novel small area estimation techniques and the most up-to-date county-level information.

Physician Distribution

  WebMD   Physician Directory
  Type in a zip code, city or state to find office phone numbers, locations, hours, and medicare/medicaid acceptance.
  Georgia Composite Medical Board   Look up a Licensed Provider
  Search by last name, license number, or city.
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