Maps give policymakers bird’s-eye view on health

Researchers, policymakers and health professionals like charts just fine when they’re looking at community health data.

But what appeals to them more than anything are maps.

A new online tool developed in part by the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati makes it easier to display large amounts of public health information visually.

The organization, along with the Ameri­can Academy of Family Physicians, recently formed the nonprofit HealthLandscape to release the product.

“Policymakers think spatially,” said Dr. Andrew Bazemore, assistant director of the AAFP’s Robert Graham Center. “They look at maps and understand health in terms of their constituents in a way that simple tables do not permit.