This is just one Airtable example that we will continue to add to and build out over time to show the value and utility of using Airtable as a data management and data presentation tool versus tradational methods of data collection, display and publishing.
- The impetus for this project started with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts finally publishing town-by-town data on COVID-19 cases, albeit in static Word doc format on the Mass.gov website here: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-cases-quarantine-and-monitoring
- That word doc looks this this, over here >>>
- Kind of lame, right? Who wants to rely on a static table of data to work with? Never mind having to publish a different PDF every day. Of course another talented set of eyeballs over at the Norman Levanthal Map Center in Boston spotted the MA DPH Word doc report and immediately dumps that same data out to GitHub in order to add some more “flavor” to it by incorporating geographic IDs as shown in the table inserted below.
- That opens up the possibility of adding a geographic map interface to that same data too. We haven’t gotten around to exploring that integration just yet but it’s certainly feasible to do so.
- So with Airtable, it’s also simple enough to just download any CSV file and import it directly into a new Airtable base where the data immediately becomes more flexible to work with. Here’s the same MA data set presented in a shared, Airtable view-only mode. Using this approach,and setting up appropriate user access credentials, one could have an entire team accessing and maintaining data sets like this remotely in a shared and secure cloud space.
- Now what if you want to start capturing your COVID-19 data at the source using a secure HIPAA compliant form to do just that? We’d recommend taking a close look at the Formstack product suite and at the same time, consider signing up for the free HIPPA level Formstack subscription plan via Formstack’s new COVID-19 Relief Program. Formstack will help you to create a custom data intake form suitable for capturing COVID-19 data at any level and then, via an Airtable integration, present that data aggregated in various ways including embedded in a website similar to the example shown above. Furthermore, you can automatically publish a custom formatted PDF report (or Word doc or Excel spreadsheet) for every day of the year automatically while simultaneously making the entire table of information instantly available and updated via your own website.
- If you are gathering and reporting COVID-19 data sets, contact Full-Nelson and we’ll show you a better, faster and easier way to process, distribute and display that data using Formstack Forms, Formstack Docs and Airtable.