Public health and health care often work together to support one another to meet the needs of the community.
During the first full week of April each year, communities across the United States observe National Public Health Week and recognize ways they can work together to support public health.
One way that Aspirus and Marathon County support one another and the community is through a data service called PULSE. PULSE is website that provides clear and comprehensible health data to the public and reflects the current health issues in the community.
The data found on PULSE is taken after both Aspirus and Marathon Public Health conduct a community health needs assessment where they identify key health issues in the community. PULSE closely monitors the data surrounding those topics to give the public a closer look into the needs of its own community.
“Having access to current data is really important to our community so as we started to explore how we could provide access to that data. The health departments and the hospital came together to fund and roll out this platform and we decided to call it Marathon County PULSE. What this allows our community to do is to have access to current (health) data at their fingertips, says Tara Draeger, Systems Director of Community Health Improvement.
This platform helps the public make informed decisions around quality of life by providing relevant data about their community that is easy to display, search, compare, and analysis.
“By Aspirus helping fund that (PULSE) any one in marathon county can access that data,” says Marathon County’s Public Health Media Specialist, Kelsey Drysdale.
PULSE continues to expand and update with new data. With this knowledge, communities and its members are able to work together to combat and monitor its most current health issues.
“When health care systems and health departments can work together, we can achieve better health outcomes which is great for the community,” says Kelsey Drysdale.
To learn more about National Public Health Week, visit nphw.org or visit marathoncountypluse.org to learn more about Marathon County PULSE.