On Friday, our MDLF Fellows were fortunate to meet virtually with Marion County Health Director Dr. Virginia Caine, Indiana University’s Professor Fred Cate, and State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box. We spent an afternoon with them, learning about the current state of health in Indiana and thinking about ways we could improve it.

After our discussion, our Fellows shared their top takeaways - the facts, trends, or insights they found most important. We then condensed them into five items:

1. There’s tons of data floating around about our individual health. Much of this data is data we often collect ourselves, through our smartphones or other devices. This data is siloed and not used to its full potential, so there are opportunities to put this information to work.

2. Indiana has lots of health programs that could have a huge impact, but they sometimes struggle to work together. Similarly, there’s room for improvement in communicating with Hoosiers who could benefit from these efforts.

3. The data we reviewed indicates significant racial disparities when it comes to both health access and health outcomes. Respect, cultural competence, and trust will be required to fix this.

4. There is a major connection between economic success and health. Growing the economy could have an added benefit of improving the health of our state (and vice versa).

5. Individual behavior and lifestyle choices have a meaningful impact on health. People make choices on healthy (or unhealthy) habits based on incentives and their environments.

Our Fellows have already begun thinking about ways we might address these challenges and opportunities.

How would you address them? Do these findings match what you’ve learned about Hoosiers’ health? What would you add to the list?