Case Studies Apply Big Data Analytics to Public Health Research

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have developed a series of case studies for public health issues that will enable healthcare leaders to use big data analytics tools in their work.

The Open Case Studies project offers an interactive online hub made up of ten case studies that use real-world public health data to research five crucial US public health challenges. The project will also provide tools and guidance on visualizing, testing, analyzing, and structuring data. The project is funded by the Bloomberg American Health Initiative.  

The initiative will aim to help students and providers utilize big data analytics tools in practice. Despite growing interest in data science on campuses, there are few courses and course materials that offer meaningful opportunities for students to learn about real-world challenges. The case studies will teach students how to effectively derive knowledge from data.

“Big data and analytics are increasingly crucial to public health research,” said Stephanie Hicks, PhD, the project’s leader and an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Biostatistics. “Yet there is a gap between the amazing tools and those who want to use them. We hope these new case studies will help bridge that gap.”

The Bloomberg Health Initiative focuses on five of the most pressing public health challenges facing the US, including addiction and overdose, adolescent health, environmental challenges, obesity and the food system, and violence.

The ten case studies draw from Bloomberg School experts and focus on subjects ranging from vaping behaviors in American youth, opioids in the US, mental health in American youth, and school shootings in the US.

The Open Case Studies project is meant to particularly valuable for students and educators in online learning environments. The project’s website provides detailed explanations of the case studies, including a “which case study is right for me” guide and links to each case study.

The initiative will help advance the use of real-world data in healthcare and the public health sector.

“The Open Case Studies project is a dynamic resource for students who want to understand how to work with real-world public health data,” said Michelle Spencer, MS, associate director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative.

“Our nation is facing so many critical public health challenges. By empowering students and practitioners to use data-centric approaches, we are giving them more tools to solve these challenges.”

Real-world data is playing a progressively more critical role in healthcare research. The recently-announced Engaging Research to Achieve Cancer Care Equality (ERACE) initiative aims to create a population-based cancer registry based on race and ethnicity. This registry will be the most comprehensive in the US to ensure equitable outcomes.

The initiative will address the longstanding disparities and gaps that exist in cancer care.

“Using real-world data, the ERACE Initiative can examine outcomes of patients that would have been excluded from clinical trials,” Erica Warner, ScD, MPH, assistant professor, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, told HealthITAnalytics.

“If we examine data from patients that would have been excluded from trials, but receive these treatments in the real world, do we see more adverse events? Are there worse outcomes or not? That could go a long way in terms of potentially advocating for change and loosening trial inclusion and exclusion criteria.”

Real-world data has also played a significant role in understanding and addressing the current pandemic. In June 2020, the FDA announced its participation in the COVID-19 Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator, a project that leverages real-world data to better understand COVID-19 risk factors.

“While there are current studies of viral diagnostic and antibody tests using traditional assessment methods, the Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator will allow the community to analyze both diagnostic and clinical data in real time, which has the potential to contribute to the scientific evaluation of diagnostic tools and medical interventions for COVID-19,” said Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD, FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner.

“FDA’s participation in the Diagnostics Evidence Accelerator is another example of how we are working with a broad set of experts in healthcare data and analytics to understand the performance of SARS-CoV-2 tests and to inform clinical and public health decision-making.”