Best Use of Data Visualisation

Summary of work

Meningitis is a devastating disease that represents a major global health challenge.
However, due to data and estimates existing in disparate systems, there was no single way to see that meningitis and neonatal sepsis were together the second-largest infectious killer of children under-5, and this was causing a lack of prioritisation.
To make a case for prioritisation and drive action, we developed the Meningitis Progress Tracker (MPT:https://www.meningitis.org/mpt?viewmode=0) which for the first time, brings together multiple sources of information, allowing users to access meningitis data and estimates for every age group and every country in the world, in one place. The tracker visualises key information about the eight million new cases and nearly 500,000 deaths caused by meningitis and neonatal sepsis every year.
Through visualising the impact of meningitis, the MPT played an integral role in driving a global call for action. This led to development of the first-ever Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030, which was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in November 2020.
The importance of the MPT in contributing to the fight against meningitis on a global scale is evidenced by WHO endorsing the MPT as the official dashboard for monitoring progress of the global roadmap.

Judges' comments

The Meningitis Progress Tracker was impressive all round. A highly important disease awareness/action campaign underpinned by a clear understanding of the data challenges and how to address these. We saw very specific objectives that were then effectively evaluated with impressive outcomes and a very detailed rollout. A brilliant project in both concept design and execution and a clear winner.