Flexible Locals, Focused State: The New Model for Shared Public Health Intelligence
At the recent ASTHO PHIG ARC Convening, attendees heard a bold vision for a future in which local innovation and statewide strategy come together through shared community health intelligence.
Today, we're in a moment of both extraordinary possibility and extraordinary pressure for public health. On one hand, the challenges are real:
Fragmentation: Data often remains trapped in silos or systems that don’t talk to each other.
Duplication: Dozens of communities recreate the same wheel with limited resources.
Capacity constraints: Local teams are doing heroic work, but often without sustainable infrastructure.
Urgency: The next crisis won’t wait for new connections.
Data disappearance: Reliable, consistent datasets are harder to access when we need them most.
And yet, the possibilities could be transformative:
Creating a new norm of real-time, bidirectional data flow across jurisdictions
Emphasizing collaboration through local flexibility paired with statewide coordination.
Building shared frameworks that preserve local voice while enriching state insight.
A Shared Framework for Impact
What if every local health department could instantly build dashboards and reports tailored to their communities while automatically contributing to a statewide picture?
What if states could see real-time, geographically precise trends, gaps, and successes without multiple platforms, manual uploads, or reconciliation delays?
These "what ifs” have become reality through Metopio’s proven model — refined through 450+ partnerships with public health, healthcare, and community organizations.
Here's what we've learned from those collaborations:
Local ownership fuels participation. When locals can highlight neighborhood-level priorities, engagement skyrockets.
Frameworks prevent drift. A common structure allows for statewide roll-ups without dictating content.
Automation frees humans for human work. Routine data collection, updates, and visualizations can (and should) be automated so staff can focus on engagement and insight.
Meeting Today’s Pressures with Tomorrow’s Tools
The national data landscape is shifting. Interoperability efforts are advancing, but real-world impact remains inconsistent. Too often, data is fragmented, delayed, or duplicative.
By connecting local dashboards into a shared statewide view, the opportunities multiply:
Targeted resourcing for counties with the greatest need
Replication models for under-resourced geographies
Peer benchmarking and cross-county learning
Grant readiness with consistent indicators and common metrics
Simpler collaboration processes for community health assessments and community health improvement plans
The result is a richer, real-time statewide picture (without complicated or competing platforms).
From Fragmentation to Shared Intelligence
Before implementing this model, teams we worked with were struggling with fragmented systems, siloed insights, and delayed action. Now, they enjoy a connected framework, real-time shared intelligence, and accelerated action.
At the local level, communities gain automated secondary data, participatory primary data collection, and dashboards designed for their unique needs. At the state level, agencies gain instant roll-ups, statewide maps, and the ability to direct resources where they matter most.
The Future Is Built on What We Share
Technology is only as powerful as the connections it enables. With a shared framework, states and locals can:
Build local capacity without losing local voice.
See statewide patterns without losing nuance.
Direct resources quickly and equitably.
Local health departments have the tools and the frameworks. The only question is: how quickly can we connect our work to maximize the impact we know is possible in every community?