The report of the 3-D Commission

Data, social determinants, and better decision-making for health

Read the full report, which explores the key social and economic drivers that influence health outcomes and illustrates how data on social determinants of health can be integrated into decision-making to improve the health of all.

View the report

Dissemination partners

Featured

BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health

Prasanna School of Public Health Manipal Academy of Higher Education

School of Public Health, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas

Determinants

Everything that makes up where we live, learn, work, and play that shapes our own and our community’s health, far more than a visit to the doctor ever will. From the foods we eat, to the places we sleep, to the political decisions that affect our lives, what are the forces that shape the health of populations outside of health care?

Data

Emerging and innovative forms of big data abound, as do traditional data sources. Collectively, these data have something to tell us about health determinants. How do we collect and analyze traditional and emerging big data sources to learn about health determinants?

Decision-making

From passing a budget to writing a law, decision-makers’ choices directly impact health determinants, so data on health determinants ought to be directly informing those choices. How do we ensure that tackling health determinants to improve the health of populations is a central goal in the decision-making process?

Overview

About the Commission

The 3-D Commission is an ambitious initiative that combines the insights of social determinants and the power of data to inform decisions that affect the health of populations. Funded by The Rockefeller Foundation and driven by the Boston University School of Public Health, the 3-D Commission aims to improve health not just by examining the social and economic levers that influence outcomes, but also by engaging policymakers to integrate data on social determinants into their decision-making.

The Commissioners

Chaired by Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, the 3-D Commission brings together a diverse group of experts in the fields of health determinants, data science, and policy. These experts are collaborating with both seasoned and emerging scholars to build a body of evidence that unites the disciplines of health determinants and data science. Together they will explore how such evidence can be communicated to, and used by, policymakers more effectively, with the end goal of improving population health.