Between a pandemic, an economic recession, and heightened awareness of social injustice, 2020 presented no shortage of urgent health and social challenges that required responses informed by emerging data and research. In this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica’s Adam Coyne, Jill Constantine, and Chris Trenholm reflect on how Mathematica and its partners rose to meet those challenges.
Coyne, Constantine, and Trenholm are the general managers of Mathematica’s International, Human Services, and Health business units, respectively. The episode features short interviews with each of them as they discuss some of Mathematica’s most significant work from the past year. Each interview includes a preview of projects, initiatives, and likely themes for 2021.
Listen to the full episode here.
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A version of the conversation with closed captioning is available on Mathematica’s YouTube channel here.
Our guests for this episode cite a bounty of resources for improving public well-being through data and evidence. The show notes below provide links for listeners to explore research papers, data-driven web tools, and ongoing Mathematica partnerships.
Show notes
Read the journal article coauthored by Mathematica’s Claire Null on the effects of individual and combined water, sanitation, handwashing, and nutritional interventions on child respiratory infections in rural Kenya.
Learn more about Mathematica’s evaluation of efforts by the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the government of Morocco to improve secondary education and workforce development.
Read more about Mathematica’s role in leading Washington State’s COVID-19 contact-tracing program.
Read more about the effects of pilot programs that expanded Pell Grant eligibility to encourage short-term occupational training. Mathematica and Social Policy Research Associates evaluated these programs on behalf of the Institute of Education Sciences.
Read a summary of findings that are still relevant today from research on remote learning in K–12 education conducted before the pandemic.
Read more about Mathematica’s work related to the COVID-19 response, including wastewater testing, contact tracing, and support for long-term care facilities.
Learn more about learning systems for accountable care organizations that Mathematica has been operating on behalf of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation.
Explore the Community Connector, a web tool Mathematica built to help Colorado counties visualize data related to residents’ social determinants of health (SDOH). The Community Connector was the winner of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality SDOH Challenge.
Read about the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Artificial Intelligence Health Outcomes Challenge, for which Mathematica is one of seven finalists.
Explore the 19 and Me app, which was the result of an internal data-science competition at Mathematica. Staff developed 19 and Me to help individuals estimate their risk of contracting COVID-19 based on the most up-to-date data and evidence.
Learn about Imersis, a cloud-based data quality tool designed by Mathematica and NewWave Government Services to help state Medicaid agencies prepare data for advanced analytics and meet new federal requirements.
