Health Data Science

Context and Datasets

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  • Health Data Science

  Rising rates of diet-related health issues have led to growing public scrutiny of the fast food industry, particularly the nutritional content of menu items. EatWell Insights, a health-focused food analytics company, partners with public health organizations to evaluate and improve food choices in the fast food sector. In this scenario, learners will work with nutrition data from MenuStat, a publicly available database that tracks menu items and their nutrition information across major fast food chains in the U.S.

• News.Health.001 News.Health.001

  • Health Data Science

  AI is playing an increasingly central role in disease prediction, helping healthcare providers shift from reactive to preventative care—but concerns remain about accuracy, fairness, and clinical integration. The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is exploring how AI models trained on structured health data can assist clinicians in identifying individuals at risk for chronic conditions like heart disease.

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  • Health Data Science

  The field of public health is grappling with increasing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence and evolving demographic patterns, underscoring the need for equitable early diagnosis.

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  • Health Data Science

  • Gender-affirming care insurance coverage in the U.S. faces potential rollbacks under new federal health policy shifts. • The policy changes are unfolding amid broader healthcare and LGBTQIA+ equity debates led by a federal agency.

• News.Health.004 News.Health.004

  • Health Data Science

  Parkinson’s disease management faces challenges due to the need for frequent clinical assessments, especially for patients with mobility issues or living remotely. Leeds Teaching Hospitals has introduced a smartphone app to facilitate remote symptom tracking and improve patient care. The learner will work with a telemonitoring dataset containing speech recordings and clinical scores from Parkinson’s patients to explore remote symptom monitoring.

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  • Health Data Science

  Esophageal cancer treatment outcomes remain a major challenge in oncology, with perioperative chemotherapy showing promise in improving survival rates.

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  • Health Data Science

  This scenario addresses youth health and risk behaviors within the public health and education sectors. The CDC administers the Youth Risk Behavior Survey to monitor behaviors contributing to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among adolescents.

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  • Health Data Science

  This scenario explores disparities in pediatric health outcomes, focusing on inequities faced by children of color within the healthcare and public health sectors. The

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  • Health Data Science

  Public health data reporting varies widely across states, impacting how disease trends are tracked and managed within the healthcare and government data management industry.

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  • Health Data Science

  The recent outbreak of Sudan Ebola virus disease in Uganda highlights critical challenges in infectious disease control within the global public health sector.

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  • Health Data Science

  This scenario addresses the challenges of disaster response and recovery within the humanitarian and geospatial data industries. The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative plays a crucial role by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating geospatial data to support relief efforts in disaster-affected regions.

• News.Health.006 News.Health.006

  • Health Data Science

  In the mid-1990s, the Group Insurance Commission (GIC) in Massachusetts released anonymized health records for research purposes, believing that removing explicit identifiers like names would protect individuals' privacy. However, by combining this data with publicly available voter registration information, individuals could be re-identified, exposing sensitive health information.

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  • Health Data Science

  During the 2010 Haiti earthquake, researchers utilized anonymized mobile phone data to track population movements. This information was crucial in understanding the spread of cholera and coordinating effective humanitarian responses. By analyzing call patterns, researchers could estimate the movement of people both in response to the earthquake and during the related cholera outbreak, enabling rapid and accurate interventions.

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  • Health Data Science

  During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, telecommunications companies shared aggregated mobile data to help track and predict the spread of the virus. This collaboration allowed health organizations to allocate resources more effectively and implement targeted containment strategies.