FAIR Health Presents at 39th NAHDO Annual Conference

November 21, 2024

On November 12, FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd delivered a virtual presentation to the 39th Annual Conference of the National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO). As part of a panel entitled “POV: Your Data Informs Policy,” Ms. Gelburd reported on a variety of FAIR Health data studies to conference attendees, who included health data organization leaders and analysts, data users and researchers, and policy makers.

The Opioid Epidemic
Ms. Gelburd’s presentation, entitled “How FAIR Health Data Inform Policy,” covered many of the ways in which FAIR Health data have been used to serve as a basis for policy making. Examples included FAIR Health’s data studies on the opioid crisis, which have led to invitations to speak to journalists at the National Press Club and with officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as notable press mentions. Included in the opioid data discussion was FAIR Health’s Opioid Tracker, which, Ms. Gelburd explained, provides a user-friendly, state-by-state snapshot of current statistics associated with opioid use disorder and dependence diagnoses, and is therefore of interest to government offices and policy institutions, among others.

Lyme Disease and Food Allergies
Ms. Gelburd also described the reach of FAIR Health’s other data studies, including those on Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases, which caught the attention of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group Subcommittee constituted under the 21st Century Cures Act. The subcommittee reached out to FAIR Health to help inform its report to Congress under that Act. Moreover, FAIR Health’s infographic on pediatric and adult food allergies resulted in the nonprofit Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) commissioning a follow-up study on food allergies, Food Allergy in the United States: Recent Trends and Costs, Ms. Gelburd said. FARE also put FAIR Health in touch with the US Department of Agriculture, which recently awarded FAIR Health a grant to support research into pediatric food allergies and foodborne illnesses to help advance research in these clinical areas.

COVID-19 and Climate Change
Also discussed were a series of FAIR Health studies on COVID-19, including long COVID, that led the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to seek additional information regarding the epidemiological burden of COVID-19 on intermediate care facilities, as well as to invitations to present findings to the World Health Organization and the International Association for the Study of Pain. Furthermore, a FAIR Health study, The Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Mental Health: A Study of Private Healthcare Claims, was influential among school boards, and another, Risk Factors for COVID-19 Mortality among Privately Insured Patients: A Claims Data Analysis, influenced vaccine prioritization. Addressing another public health issue, Ms. Gelburd described how FAIR Health was invited to speak to the federal Office of Climate Change and Health Equity about the impact of climate change on health, which led to the publication of a FAIR Health data study, Heat-Related Illnesses: A Window into Recent Trends.

Giving Birth and Telehealth
Other FAIR Health data contributions that Ms. Gelburd highlighted in the presentation included those addressing maternal health and the cost of giving birth, such as the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker and the white paper Giving Birth in the United States: A Study of Commercial Claims. Further, she cited FAIR Health’s comprehensive collection of telehealth data, presented in the form of the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, which has been referenced in an Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation issue brief, a Government Accountability Office report to committees of the US Congress and a publication issued by the Federal Communications Commission.