From Data Overload to Usable Insight: How Public Health Teams Can Bridge the Gap
After a week of incredible conversations at the APHA Annual Meeting, one thing stood out:
Public health teams don’t need more data. They need usable data.
Everywhere we turned, leaders, practitioners, and students echoed the same frustration. They’re inundated with dashboards, reports, and PDFs, but what they really need are insights that help them make decisions, write grants, and improve community outcomes.
At PubTrawlr and FindGrant.ai, we’re working to make that shift — from information overload to insight readiness.
The Problem: Too Much Data, Too Little Usability
Modern public health is a data-rich field. Yet the abundance of evidence often becomes its own barrier.
Here are the three challenges we heard most often at APHA:
Volume overload: The flow of new research and reporting outpaces the ability to absorb it. Relevance gap: Data is rarely aligned with real-time needs, such as a policy decision or a grant deadline. Translation bottleneck: Turning findings into action plans, slides, or funding language still takes too long.
As one Assistant LHD director told me:
“We have numbers for everything. What we lack is the narrative that connects them to our work.”
What Makes Data Truly “Usable”
Usable data is not just cleaner or prettier. It is actionable. It meets people where they are.
- It’s Timely: delivered at the moment of decision-making.
- It’s Relevant: tied to pressing issues like workforce, housing, or equity.
- It’s Digestible: written in plain language, summarized clearly, and shareable.
- It’s Aligned with Funding: connected to opportunities that can sustain the work.
That’s the heart of what we’re building across PubTrawlr’s platforms.
Turning Insight into Action: Our Approach
Each week, we curate and summarize new research from journals, preprints, and public data sources, transforming it into brief, plain-language insights that are easy to share in meetings or newsletters. We pair each summary with practical implications and equity framing, so readers understand how the findings can translate into real-world change.
FindGrant.ai connects evidence to opportunity. It automatically surfaces grants, foundation calls, and government RFPs aligned with your focus areas, from maternal health to workforce development. Think of it as “evidence meets funding intelligence.”
3. Automation for Equity
Behind the scenes, we’re utilizing automation and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines to streamline the process of how evidence and opportunities reach people. That means less time searching and more time implementing.
Equity Requires Usable Evidence
Across every APHA conversation, one thread ran through: equity is only possible when data is usable.
Equity is an operational principle. When information is locked behind jargon, paywalls, or scattered systems, the communities that need it most are the least likely to benefit.
Usable data changes that equation. It empowers teams to:
- Focus resources where disparities are highest.
- Design culturally grounded interventions.
- Communicate value to funders clearly.
- Mobilize community partners with a shared understanding
The Path Forward: Practical Steps for Teams
If you came home from APHA buzzing with ideas but unsure where to start, try these:
- ✅ Identify one insight that could influence your next 90-day plan.
- ✅ Ask your team, “What would make this data easier to act on?”
- ✅ Subscribe to curated sources like This Week in Public Health.
- ✅ Explore automation or AI tools (like FindGrant.ai) that align funding, evidence, and equity in one place.
Conclusion: From Overwhelm to Action
The era of “more data” is over. The future belongs to teams who can make sense of it — quickly, clearly, and collaboratively.
If you left APHA feeling both inspired and overloaded, you’re not alone. But this is also the perfect moment to rebuild how we engage with evidence.
At PubTrawlr and FindGrant.ai, we’re proud to stand alongside the changemakers turning research into reality. Together, we can make data usable.
