SAVI Public Health Needs Assessment: Final Report and Recommendations

Abstract

This report summaries the 2007 assessment of current and projected health sector uses of the SAVI Community Information System (SAVI) and recommends SAVI enhancements to meet the information needs of decision makers, practitioners, and researchers. Based on focus groups and key informant interviews, it was discovered that local decisionmakers and practitioners in Central Indiana currently used SAVI, or would like to use SAVI, to assess the relative spatial demand and supply of health and human services, select sites for new health and human service facilities, assess patient access to health and human service facilities, select locations for services and programs, and track characteristics of facility catchment areas. Health practitioners and public health professionals were interested in using geospatially-enabled indicators for more effective planning and interventions, including to track public health outcomes, understand the socio-economic and physical environment of individual patients and communities, locate target populations for existing and potential health programs and services, support grant applications, and inform the public about environmental risk factors and disease prevalence in their communities. Clinical translational and public health researchers are using, or would like to use, geospatially-enabled measures for the study of social and environmental determinants of health, health disparities, environmental exposure and health risk, predictors of health knowledge, ecological models of health behavior, health service access, quality, and cost, and efficacy of health interventions. Detailed recommendations are provided for both short- and long-term enhancements to SAVI based on the existing and potential SAVI users and uses identified via this study and toward assisting the local health sector improve health knowledge and ultimately the health and wellbeing of Central Indiana communities.