AJ Delgado, a postdoctoral fellow in the university’s Department of Public Health, has spent his career analyzing data to better understand health disparities. Now he’s equipping community-based health organizations with the same tools and methods to tackle them head-on.
Through specialized training, he’s helping staff from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and the Latino Commission on AIDS make sense of their health data using generative AI. By translating complex data into actionable insights, these organizations can enhance their grant proposals, create data-driven reports and make stronger suggestions for interventions. Ultimately, they are learning to convert data into real-world applications to bridge the health gaps that impact Texas communities.
Funded by the Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science, the six-week training guided community health professionals on ways to analyze data using RStudio, a statistical software, and ChatGPT, a generative AI tool. The program merged online and live sessions to enhance skills in assessing HIV datasets and generating code to create dynamic reports.
WATCH: AJ Delgado discusses the importance of equipping community health organizations with data tools.
“Understanding data is only as complicated as the person explaining it,” Delgado says. “We use numbers all the time. When we purchase items from Amazon, we probably spend more time looking at ratings than the actual product we’re purchasing. We’re using data to make the best decisions. I believe that most health data can be translated in a way that the everyday consumer can use to make better choices about their health.”
Delgado has recruited several students to work on the project. His initiative — which he hopes to continue in years to come — not only boosts evidence-based decision-making in underserved communities, but also sets the stage for future experiential learning programs at UT San Antonio bringing together data analysis and the nonprofit sector.
Rebeca Martinez, a graduate research assistant who is pursuing a master’s degree in psychology, jumped at the opportunity to join the workshop. She says that working with RStudio has not only strengthened her technical expertise in data analysis but also emphasized the importance of using accessible tools to conduct meaningful research.
“This was an amazing opportunity to collaborate with professionals from various community-focused fields and support them in developing skills with RStudio, including coding, filtering and mapping datasets,” Martinez says.
Delgado hopes this project will be a catalyst for lasting change; one that will help build a more data-proficient workforce in San Antonio, especially in nonprofits that serve as hubs for access to healthcare for underserved communities. Ultimately, this work isn’t just about numbers, he says. It’s about people.
No comment yet, add your voice below!