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161 – Dynamic Interactive Data Visualization and Utilization

Data Visualization Challenges in Reducing Maternal and Child Mortality

at North Carolina State University

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 includes reducing maternal and child mortality by 50% by 2030. In recent years, leading healthcare providers and global public health experts have begun to realize the importance of data visualization for understanding the causes of death and proven best practices in reducing mortality. The aim of this work is creating a dynamic and interactive data visualization and utilization lab enabling 193 countries to share proven best practices. The lab will facilitate data collection, analysis, presentation of results and provides a structured framework of what works (where, how and why) to support thousands of existing and new efforts in reducing maternal and child mortality. This research is supporting the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the United Nations Family Planning Agency and the World Bank who are working together with the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill WHO Coordinating Center. In this study, we have identified the most trusted and accurate databases for maternal and child mortality as well as the reasons for these deaths. We are now identifying the proven best practices used throughout the world in reducing maternal and child mortality. We are exploring many data visualization challenges including collecting reliable data, plotting real-time data, effective data analysis, and discovering the right tools to visualize the data. The findings of this research will become a major part of structured improvement and implementation practices that support the United Nation‘s Sustainable Development Goals for health.