We’re honored to announce that Numina has been selected as a Technology for Healthy Communities Innovator, to work with Jacksonville to address pedestrian safety.
Jacksonville has the highest pedestrian fatality rate of any major American city (ranked 12th in population and first in land area). We’ll be collaborating with the City of Jacksonville, Health 2.0, the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, and the Health Planning Council of Northeast Florida to learn why pedestrians are in such danger and how the City can improve the situation. The program is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. As their original challenge to Health 2.0 notes, Jacksonville has a need to “address public safety for under-served populations that don’t have cars and must resort to walking and biking out of necessity.” Making streets safer will also enable access and promote physical activity — to improve health outcomes and reduce chronic disease (strongly linked to obesity, which is mitigated by regular active transportation, i.e. walking and biking instead of driving).
(On a personal note: I am thrilled and moved to work on this project because one of my earliest jobs, which was a major inspiration for our company, was with a Prevention Research Center office focused on obesity prevention and active transportation. RWJF funded much of the research there, and I dreamed that our work would lead to actionable changes in city design and policy as soon as possible. Working with the Technology for Healthy Communities program now allows us to quickly bring actionable information to Jacksonville, whose team is inspiring and committed to making the city safer and accessible for everyone.)
We admire our co-Innovators, Healthify and Welkin Health, working with Spartanburg, SC, and Alameda County, CA, respectively.
Read Health 2.0’s announcement here.