Hi Catie,
Welcome to the Community Tool Box and Ask an Advisor, hopefully we can provide you with useful and applicable information! That's an excellent question. Data visualization is such a timely topic because anyone who presents data wants maximum impact and that "wow" factor to drive home the points they want to make. We are fortunate in our technological age that there are many data visualization software tools out there (http://www.capterra.com/data-visualization-software/) that can help us achieve that certain "pop." This is not a bad way to go provided you have access, but you still have to have the data before embarking down that road.
That said, in some ways, you astutely answered your own question in that RWJF and NYC-CH are excellent examples. Perhaps other folks who read our posts will chime in with their own examples (hint, hint). Okay, so first I did a little digging around the Community Tool Box using "presenting population health data" as the search terms. Here's what I found (this is very basic and you probably already know much of this already) which follows this thread: Home » Table of Contents » Generating, Managing, and Sustaining Financial Resources » Chapter 42. Getting Grants and Financial Resources » Section 5. Writing a Grant » Main Section » Tips for Presenting Data: 1) Use comparative statistics whenever possible (e.g., county vs. state vs. federal, or multiple age groups or ethnicities); 2) When determining which type of chart or graph to make, do not use a pie chart if you have more than three or four categories of data; 3) Use line graphs to show a long-term trend in data; 4) Use bar charts to depict differences, especially when you are comparing only two categories of data (e.g., only two race/ethnicity categories, male versus female, county versus state); 5) Include a chart title that accurately yet succinctly describes the image, and include the year(s) from which the data came; 6) Always clearly label the y (vertical) and x (horizontal) axes of your charts, and identify the units of measure (e.g., rate versus count); and 7) Provide a legend to explain data categories, data ranges or intervals, color-coding, etc. As I said, this is basic, common-sense information although never a bad refresher. An advanced search unfortunately yielded nothing more.
Not to be stymied by this turn of events, I took my search outside the Community Tool Box and came up with a number of websites that might prove illustrative and useful in your endeavors:
1) The California Health Foundation: http://www.chcf.org/publications/2014/02/worth-thousand-words-data
2) National Cancer Institutes: http://www.cancer.gov/publications/health-communication/making-data-talk...
3) Northwest Center for Public Health Practice: http://www.nwcphp.org/training/opportunities/online-courses/presenting-p...
4) New York State Department of Health: https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/chac/process_data.htm
5) This is a book that you might purchase for other projects: https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/chac/process_data.htm
6) eHealth SlideShare presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/StefanPopowycz/visualizing-healthcare-data-ehe...
7) Public Health England: http://www.swpho.nhs.uk/resource/item.aspx?RID=89769
8) NAPHSIS: https://naphsis-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/DataAnalysisSeriesModule4Presen...
Well Catie, I think that just about wraps thing up here at Ask an Advisor. I'm not sure how helpful we've been, but certainly feel free to get back in touch if these resources don't work for you and we'll work on a solution together. With that, thank you again for visiting Ask an Advisor and sharing your question with us, timely and important. Take care, be well.
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