Information for State Health Policy was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) national program charged with improving the capacity of state health statistics systems to support policymaking, as well as aiding in program development and management.

Projects funded under this program:

• Assessed states' health policy needs.
• Established plans and set priorities to meet those needs.
• Improved the states' health statistics infrastructure.

The national program funded projects in 10 states for 18-month Phase I planning grants; seven of those states received Phase II implementation grants that extended over four years through 1997. See the Project List to link to reports on the projects and evaluation.

Key Findings
Mathematica Policy Research, Washington conducted an evaluation of the program. It includes these findings:

• All states made concrete improvements in the data available to support policymaking, though the breadth and depth of progress varied across the states as did the closeness of the link between data enhancements and policy deliberations.
• Generally, states launched four types of projects:
  • Building system capacity via new data systems or links among existing systems.
  • Developing population-based survey capacity.
  • Conducting geographic and other issue-targeted analysis.
  • Building dissemination vehicles.
• All states made progress toward achieving their original goals, although none met all.
• States were more successful in making concrete improvements in their data and in shifting the orientation of their staff than in establishing formal structures to maintain an inter-agency process.
• All but one of the Phase II states succeeded in extending the Information for State Health Policy entity, or at least key staff and functions, beyond the RWJF grant.

Program Management
The program operated under the leadership of a national program office at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Environmental and Community Medicine, Piscataway, N.J.

Until October 1993, it was co-directed by Ruth Hanft at George Washington University.

Funding
RWJF's Board of Trustees authorized $7.3 million for the national program for five years beginning February 1991.

The Phase I awards were made to: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Connecticut, West Virginia, and Montana did not receive implementation funding.