Notre Dame partners with Accenture to grow health equity data and analytics to improve health care for vulnerable populations
Identifying and addressing community health and well-being obstacles is a challenge typically addressed in silos of local government, hospital systems or community organizations, with narrow interventions such as improved access to nutritious food or providing better transportation for residents to medical facilities.
The University of Notre Dame’s Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society is collaborating with campus and community partners to develop a more holistic approach to addressing such problems through its new Health Equity Data Lab.
With the support of a gift from Accenture, the first undertaking for the lab is the Accenture Health Equity Data project, led by Nitesh Chawla, the institute’s founding director and the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Accenture has also committed to a fundraising campaign with its employees and alumni, including those who have ties to Notre Dame, over a three-year period.
The Accenture Health Equity Data project will leverage the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand and aim to solve the most intransigent healthcare challenges, specifically at the intersection of medical and social care.
“The Accenture Health Equity Data gift will allow us to build a comprehensive framework to identify where gaps exist for underserved communities when trying to improve health and well-being,” Chawla said. “An understanding of these gaps can illuminate the sources of disparities that can be followed up by collaboratively developing clinical, behavioral, social and/or policy interventions that target these challenges.
“We are extremely grateful for Accenture’s support,” he continued. “We hope to develop a framework for co-creation and co-innovation to advance solutions to tackle health disparities challenges, including but not limited to responsible AI for health, an annual health equity data index and adding precision to social determinants of health actions. Our partnership with Accenture is a perfect pairing for our organizations to tackle such problems given the Lucy Institute’s mission to advance data innovations that help transform society and individual lives.”
The Accenture Health Equity Data project will convene a business forum of leaders from academics, government, corporations and non-governmental organizations to discuss specific community health care inequities and solutions from all facets.
Dr. Ankoor Shah, Accenture’s health equity lead, said, “We are proud to support this critical initiative because we believe technology, in concert with academic community and corporate partnerships, is the catalyst to actionably reduce disparities in healthcare access, experience and ultimately outcomes.”
Michele Martin, Accenture’s health industry managing director and sponsor of the program added, “This is an important nexus of impactful, data-driven research and corporate application designed to improve the communities that we serve.”
Latest Faculty & Staff
- There’s no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to addressing men’s health issues globallyAt a time when health resources are at a premium and need to be wisely allocated, health professionals must find points within men’s lives when it makes the most sense to intervene and advocate for preventive care for promoting better health outcomes. Life transitions such as marriage and fatherhood are often pivotal and crucial intervention points. But just like every man is different, health concerns across global communities differ as well. Research from the University of Notre Dame finds that not all life transitions produce the same health results, and not all men’s global health policies should look the same from one country to another.
- Three Notre Dame faculty named 2024 Guggenheim FellowsBarbara Montero, a professor of philosophy; Gretchen Reydams-Schils, a professor in the Program of Liberal Studies; and Roy Scranton, an associate professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program and the Environmental Humanities Initiative, are among the 188 scholars, scientists and artists chosen from approximately 3,000 applicants for the fellowship. The Guggenheim Foundation awards these fellowships to outstanding scholars in order to add to the educational, literary, artistic and scientific power of the country.
- Essays on democracy draw attention to critical threats, explore safeguards ahead of Jan. 6Shortly after Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building, Notre Dame’s Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy established the January 6th, 2025, Project, which includes 10 Notre Dame faculty who are preeminent scholars of democracy. In an effort to understand the social, political, psychological and demographic factors that led to that troublesome day, the group created a collection of 14 essays aimed at drawing attention to the vulnerabilities in our democratic system and the threats building against it, hoping to create consensus on ways to remedy both problems.
- Carter Snead testifies before US Senate Judiciary CommitteeO. Carter Snead, the Charles E. Rice Professor of Law and director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, offered expert testimony on Wednesday (March 20) before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the current legal landscape following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
- In memoriam: Ronald Weber, American studies professor emeritusRonald Weber, a professor emeritus of American studies at the University of Notre Dame, died March 12 in Valparaiso, Indiana. He was 89.
- Political scientist shares China-Global South expertise with policymakersFor more than a decade, China has invested heavily in the economic development of countries collectively known as the Global South. More recently, China has demonstrated that its ambitions are growing beyond the economic realm and extending into the geopolitical sphere. This shift carries implications not only for the developing countries that are the beneficiaries of China’s investment, but also for the United States and other developed democracies, says Joshua Eisenman, associate professor of politics in the Keough School of Global Affairs.