State Health Access Data Assistance Center

SHADAC is a health policy center with a research and technical assistance agenda related to state health coverage and access policy, data collection methods, and the use of data to inform state health policy. A primary aim of SHADAC it to provide technical assistance in way that builds state’s internal capacity for data collection and policy analysis. SHADAC’s experience includes synthesizing and disseminating relevant research and information in a manner that is targeted, timely, and accessible to state officials; providing one-on-one technical assistance to states; and engaging in research projects to evaluate state health reform initiatives and disseminating the results of these studies.  “Bridging the gap” between research and policy and providing technical assistance to individual states are central to SHADAC’s mission. SHADAC helps to translate, synthesize, and disseminate health policy research in a way that is timely, accessible, and relevant to state officials who are responsible for making and implementing policy.  SHADAC also responds to requests from states on a wide range of topics, ranging from how to design and conduct state health insurance surveys to analyzing and evaluating policy options for state implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Finally, SHADAC is engaged with conducting research to evaluate state health reform initiatives as the national program office for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Health Access Reform Evaluation (SHARE) program, which supports rigorous, quick-turnaround, policy-relevant studies aimed at identifying lessons to help states shape implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  SHADAC plays a key role in identifying best practices and lessons learned from this research, and disseminating the results of the research to state policy officials and other audiences in a manner that is accessible, policy-relevant, and timely.