Unlocking vibrant health & wellness.

The Challenge

Before using mySidewalk, LDH's SHA and SHIP were confined to static PDFs.

The rigid nature of these documents not only hindered the pace of progress but also failed to keep up with the dynamic demands of the evolving health landscape.

LDH knew community conversations were critical to understanding those demands. Achieving health equity is not a one-size-fits-all and requires constant evaluation. The team also didn’t have an easy way to share region-specific data. They urgently sought a dynamic approach to expand the conversation and narrow in on action steps toward improving health equity.

The Solution

When it came to building comprehensive, interactive, engaging data visualizations to share with the residents, mySidewalk’s expansive data library and tools made it easy.

“I've done this (created a SHA and SHIP) a few times now and this is the, this is the best process I think I've been involved in,” says Robert Hines, the Deputy Director for Planning and Performance at LDH.

Uncovering health needs, even inequities, was just the start of improving health. After the creation of the SHA, things got extra exciting for Louisiana. LDH reached nearly 6,000 Louisianans via two sets of meetings for each of the state’s nine health regions, a statewide electronic survey, and community leader and public health system representative interviews.

Hear Brad Wellons, Regional Manager at the Louisiana Public Health Institute, talk about why his involvement in the SHIP process was rewarding and how the process used a strategic methodology to engage the community of Louisiana. 

Rallying conversations around engaging data put relationships with communities and partners ahead of where the state health department had been in years.  

”I feel good about what we’re producing," Hines said.

Advisory groups, composed of practitioners and community members across the state, met to discuss key areas of impact for their domain. The teams used mySidewalk Seek, Data Guides, and Asset Maps to determine the most relevant and impactful metrics to track over time. 

While the priority issues still ranged in need and effort, having them identified—better yet, having buy-in on them—meant LDH could get to work creating a plan to improve health outcomes for Louisianans.  

Leveraging mySidewalk's data library and intuitive design, LDH now showcases data and initiatives that intimately connect with their audience. This collaboration ensures LDH's capacity to inform and deeply engage their community—igniting a unified drive toward equitable health outcomes.