Meet the Data Science for the Public Good team for this project

  • Undergraduate Intern: Sophia Gavasheli​
  • Graduate Mentor: Pragati Dahal​
  • Faculty Advisor: Michael Cary, Yujuan Gao, and Le Wang

Project description

The role of economic and social factors on health outcomes has been widely studied, while the effect of infrastructure has been less so.​ This project aims to develop a national county-year panel dataset with infrastructure and health variables.​ We also aim to predict health outcomes with important infrastructure variables.​ The project shows that factors such as healthcare availability, transportation barriers, and broadband access may play important roles in shaping health disparities across communities.

This project highlights the need to invest in rural healthcare facilities, transportation, and broadband infrastructure to reduce travel times and improve access to both in-person care and telehealth services. Data-driven targeting and stronger collaboration among healthcare providers, transportation agencies, and policymakers can help ensure that investments reach the most underserved communities.

"Healthcare accessibility and health outcomes are both multidimensional, and the relationships between transportation, broadband availability, healthcare access, and health can vary substantially across different outcomes. This project allowed us to examine these complex relationships by integrating diverse infrastructure and health datasets at the county level, providing a more comprehensive understanding of how community infrastructure is associated with population health. Our collaboration with Ballad Health also helped ground this work in the real-world challenges of expanding and improving healthcare access across Appalachia. Ultimately, the goal is to translate these insights into strategies that can improve health and well-being across Virginia and the broader Appalachian region." - Le Wang, professor and David M. Kohl Chair
3 images of a female presenting to an audience.

Intern insights

Sophia: This summer, I was part of the Rural Health and Infrastructure team, where we explored how infrastructure accessibility — including transportation, broadband availability, and healthcare access—relates to health outcomes such as chronic disease prevalence and mortality. I was drawn to this project because I had thought that financial barriers were the biggest challenge in healthcare accessibility, and this project offered the opportunity to explore other relationships such as transportation barriers and internet access. 

Our project was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Paula Masters, Vice President of Health Programs at Ballad Health, an organization focused on improving healthcare access in Appalachia. Dr. Masters provided valuable feedback and helped us understand the real-world importance of our work. I also greatly appreciated the guidance of my graduate mentor, Pragati, who helped me navigate more complex methods of analyzing the data. 

One of the most impactful parts of the program was sharing progress with my peers each week and seeing how different teams approached data challenges. These discussions allowed me to learn from other projects and mentors while gaining a broader perspective on the role of data science for the public good. 

Through this experience, I developed skills in data cleaning and spatial analysis while learning how to apply them to meaningful public health questions.  I learned that healthcare accessibility is a multidimensional challenge that requires combining many types of data to fully understand it. DSPG changed my understanding of data science by showing me that it can do more than support business decisions—it can uncover insights that help communities, inform policy, and address complex issues. 

Graduate mentor project insights

Pragati Dahal: This summer, I had the opportunity to serve as the graduate lead for the Infrastructure and Health Outcomes team, where we partnered with Ballad Health to examine how community infrastructure shapes health outcomes. 

Along with my main project, I also contributed to another DSPG team investigating how the rapid expansion of large data centres influences local temperatures and surrounding economic activity. Applying my background in economic modelling to a new policy question broadened both my technical expertise and research perspective.

One of the most rewarding aspects of the summer was growing as a mentor. As someone who is usually on the receiving end of mentorship, it was incredibly fulfilling to guide undergraduate interns, provide feedback, and watch them navigate real-world research challenges. 

In addition to my mentorship role, I also developed and delivered two hands-on workshops on data visualization and causal inference, creating opportunities for experiential learning and knowledge sharing across the programme.

Above all, I will remember the strong sense of community. After the demanding pace of my first year of PhD coursework, working closely with undergraduate interns and my fellow graduate leads was inspiring. The experience strengthened not only my research skills but also my confidence as a leader, mentor, and collaborator, making this one of the most valuable experiences of my graduate school journey.

What our stakeholders had to say about their experience

It was MY pleasure to work with such impressive students and work products. I look forward to continued collaboration!

Paula Masters, Ph.D.
VP, Chief Health Disparities Officer
Ballad Health

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