Create a data visualisation on health and care inequalities and win £1000.

Project

Published: 15/10/2019

Project status: Current

In partnership with:

Nuffield TrustThe BMJNHS Digital


Winners now announced!


One of the core principles of the English National Health Service is to make health care available to all, based on clinical need, not an individual's ability to pay. However, many socio-demographic factors have an influence on our health and our ability to access health care.

This new data visualisation competition aims to shine a light on data about health and care inequalities in England. Using data provided by NHS Digital, we are asking entrants to tell a captivating visual story about the health of different groups of people in England.

Round 1 shortlist announcement

We are very pleased to announce that twenty entries to the first NHS Visual Data Challenge have been shortlisted across two categories of visualisation – static and dynamic.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter, and congratulations to all those shortlisted.

Shortlisted entrants will next have until March 1st 2020 to produce fully rendered versions of their initial sketch ideas. Our judging panel will then choose gold, silver and bronze awards in both static and dynamic categories. Winners will be announced on March 15th 2020.

Good luck to all those shortlisted! We are looking forward to seeing how your ideas turn out!

If you have any questions regarding the competition please email nhsdataviz@nuffieldtrust.org.uk

Dynamic entry shortlist

Name
(lead entrant)
Names of collaborators Entry title
Rachel Newby Fighting for air: asthma & air pollution
Owen Cho Eileen Robertson What if
Simon Parker Hira Naveed Mapping The Human Cost of Deprivation
Saran Shantikumar Farah Kidy, Will Proto, Majel McGranahan, Sarah Hillman, Dan Todkill, Noel McCarthy Inequalities in Primary Care
Emily Dearden Premature mortality: exploring the geography of ineqaulity
Evangelos Kontopantelis Laura Anselmi, Christos Grigoroglou, Jonathan Stokes Inequality in primary care expenditure and morbidity: A journey through England
William P Ball Infant Mortality Rates in England (2008-2017) by Deprivation as a 'Statistical Sculpture'
Jonathan Rumsey Visual Exploration of Prevalence and Deprivation
Gwilym Lockwood What's the link between deprivation and obesity in school children in England? And what kind of regional effects are there?
Lauren Richardson Anne Alarilla, Katrina Brown Smoking prevalence: A wake up call

Static entry shortlist

Name
(lead entrant)
Names of collaborators Entry title
Dr Helen Alexander What factors underlie inequality in life expectancy in England?
Charlotte West  Smoking During Pregnancy Baby Blanket.
Jason Mann Karen Kerr The Impact of Major Surgery in the Unfit and Deprived
Richard Evans I Know My Place
Beth Davies Derryn Lovett Atrial fibrillation related stroke risk in England; identifying the unmet need for anticoaguation
David Solomons Kicking the Habit
Charlotte Cuddihy The IMD map to scaling new health heights in Lancashire 
Kate Cheema Naomi Herz Lost Hearts
Charlie Steer Unhappy Meals: The extent of fast food in our most deprived communities
Petronella Downing The story of childhood obesity

Rounds

The competition is in two rounds:

Round 1: Initial idea

Initial entries should be in the form of a hand-drawn sketch. We believe this format is the quickest and most effective method of conveying visualisation ideas. Digital tools can be used to get an overall sense of the data prior to sketching, but the submission must be hand-rendered. A graphics tablet or digital drawing tool may be used, but we are looking for effectively communicated ideas, not a beautiful finished product at this stage.

Round 2: Fully render

A shortlist of 10 entries will be drawn up from the first round submissions. Their authors will be invited to produce fully rendered versions of their sketches, from which a gold, silver and bronze award will be chosen for each category.

 

Formats

There are two categories for this competition - static and dynamic.

Graphics that do not involve movement or interaction will be considered in the static category. Screen based, interactive, and motion visualisations, including audio-based (sonifications) will be considered dynamic entries. Physical visualisations can be entered, and their category will depend on the amount of movement or interaction afforded to the viewer in the same way. 

Prizes

Prizes awarded to winners of each category.

Gold
£1000

Silver
£600

Bronze
£400

 

Winners’ visualisations will be published on the Nuffield Trust and BMJ web sites. 

Judges

  • John Appleby: Director of Research and Chief Economist, Nuffield Trust
  • Kieran Baker: Head of Business Intelligence, NHS Digital
  • Amy Caldwell-Nichols: Director of Performance and Analytics, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
  • Danny Dorling: Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford
  • Brian Ferguson: Chief Economist, Public Health England
  • Andy Kirk: Dataviz designer, lecturer and author
  • Hem Patel: Co-founder of Signal|Noise
  • Stefanie Posavec: Data designer, artist and author
  • Professor Stephen H Powis: National Medical Director, NHS England
  • Marie Segger: Data journalist, The Economist
  • Alan Smith: Head of visual and data journalism, Financial Times
  • Will Stahl-Timmins: Data Graphics Designer, BMJ
  • Margaret Whitehead: WH Duncan Professor of Public Health, University of Liverpool

Data

A number of data sets have been provided by NHS Digital.

Visualisations should be mainly focussed on exploring the patterns in at least one of these data sets. Other data can be used in a supporting role (please provide references if including other data).


Download the data pack


Rules

The competition is open to data visualisation practitioners, whether professional, amateur or studying. You may enter as an individual or as a group, but you may only submit one entry, in either the static or dynamic categories. Entrants can reside anywhere in the world, although the data that we want you to work with is from England so at least basic knowledge about our health system would likely be an advantage! 

Audience

Your visualisation should be understood by a non-specialist audience. The aim of the piece is to raise greater awareness of existing health inequalities and trends. An interested health service user, provider or policy maker could find something of relevance to them within the visualisation.

Timetable

First round deadline: 31 Dec 2019

Shortlist announced: 29 Jan 2020

Second round deadline: 01 Mar 2020

Winners announced: 23 Mar 2020


If you have any questions regarding the competition please email: nhsdataviz@nuffieldtrust.org.uk.