New Online Tool Bridging Health Community In the Northland

With this new tool the goal is to improve overall health in the Northland.

DULUTH, Minn. – The St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services Department has joined forces with other organizations to make health information available at your fingertips.

Essentia Health and St. Luke’s Hospital are also on board to help create what’s called the Healthy Communities Institute Tool (HCI).

With this new tool the goal is to improve overall health in the Northland.

The website is bridginghealthnorth.org and that’s exactly what it’s all about.

The site is being called a one stop shop for data in the community bringing comprehensive health data and a variety of indicators that impact health outcomes into one site.

“It has a lot more in depth data than we’ve ever used before. it’s going down to zip codes, census tracks,” said Essentia Health Community Health Program Manager Emily Anderson. “It can tease out disparities between race, income and gender.”

The site can be used for strategic planning, advocacy and community health improvement and also as a way to monitor health trends.

It can provide users with information from certain neighborhoods, or the county and the city.

The tool is available for anyone to use as well as businesses.

“It could be used for community organizations and grant applications or community reports or community assessment and planning processes,” said St. Louis County Public Health Division Director Amy Westbrook.

HCI will be updated regularly.

The Healthy People 2020 Progress Tracker will let users see how the community is moving on specific indicators.

Site developers tell us there are similar tools like this across the nation, but this is the first of its kind in the state.