We surface facts obscured by complexity, markets, and power — giving consumers, communities, and policymakers the information they need to act.
Read moreTheory of Change
Hidden facts govern daily life. The full costs of a new technology, environmental hazards in a neighborhood, the root causes of illness and health are typically obscured -- hidden by complexity, market logic, political interests, and institutional inertia.
When people and communities cannot see what shapes their health and wellbeing, they cannot change it. Information asymmetry is not an inconvenience — it is a structural barrier to justice and health.
The Civic Engine designs tools and strategies to break that asymmetry: surfacing data where decisions are made, translating complexity into clarity, and connecting evidence to action.
Step 1
Data, costs, risks, and outcomes obscured by complexity, brand, or institutional power — made visible through research, open data, and design.
Step 2
Information delivered where and when it matters — accessible, actionable, and legible to the people who need it most.
Step 3
Individuals choose with full information; communities organize around evidence; policymakers allocate resources toward what works.
Step 4
Improved health, equity, and accountability — not as aspirations, but as measurable outcomes of systems that work with, not against, the people inside them.
Health is where we live, what we earn, and who looks out for us — not just what happens inside a clinic.
Meeting those needs requires us to see them clearly first.
Current Work
In much of the world, doctors prescribe under pressure from memory, and patients leave without understanding what they are given or why. The system stabilizes around information asymmetry — with predictable costs to safety, adherence, and trust.
In DevelopmentFor Doctors
A prescribing tool built for the 2-minute consultation.
In development.
For Patients
A tool to understand and manage medicines.
In development.
Past Work
New Mexico Health Connections
Applied the Roots to Health Screening Tool and Survey to improve population health for a statewide cooperative health plan. The project assessed unmet basic needs among members with chronic disease, enabling community health workers to address social and economic barriers to care — and quantifying their impact on quality, utilization, and costs at the population level.
Basic Needs · Population HealthRoots Community Health Center, Oakland
Integrated pro-active basic-needs assessment into routine clinical practice at a community health center serving economically and socially vulnerable populations. Community health workers navigated patients to responsive community resources. Population-level data on needs and outcomes informed county-wide alignment of social service and healthcare delivery.
Clinical Integration · Social DeterminantsRubicon Programs — Alameda & Contra Costa Counties
Valued the health benefits of economic self-sufficiency programs for low-income adults. People unable to make ends meet face constant trade-offs among food, housing, childcare, and health. This work built a credible, routine measurement framework — supporting new business models for economic mobility programs and new civic intelligence for policymakers allocating resources for health improvement.
Health ROI · Economic MobilityState of Rhode Island
Designed and selected indicators to catalyze and monitor the achievements of Rhode Island's Health Equity Zone initiative — a data-driven framework for driving measurable progress toward health equity at the community level.
Health Equity · IndicatorsSonoma County Public Health Department
Facilitated the design of a sustainable, self-funded food prescription service providing financial incentives for medically indicated food purchases — connecting clinical evidence on food-health linkages to a practical, county-scale delivery model.
Food Security · Health InnovationPublic Health Institute
Designed a cumulative neighborhood health disadvantage index for California, adapting international best practices for small-area measurement. The index supports targeted public health investment in the communities facing the greatest structural barriers to health.
Place-Based Equity · IndicatorsRaime + Associates — Los Angeles
Supported a comprehensive health impact assessment of maritime port activities on the communities of San Pedro and Wilmington in Los Angeles — documenting air quality, noise, and community health burdens from port operations and proposed mitigation strategies.
Environmental Health · HIAPew Charitable Trusts
Developed modular protocols for health-conscious design of transportation and housing infrastructure projects — giving planners and agencies standardized tools to integrate health impact analysis into capital and policy decisions from the start.
Built Environment · DesignHealthy Housing Solutions & HUD
Guided the selection and development of neighborhood health indicators for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Healthy Community Assessment Tool (HCAT) — providing a practical framework for evaluating community health assets and gaps in federally assisted housing communities.
Housing · Community HealthOpen Source Resources
The Civic Engine resources are open source. Use or adapt them freely with attribution.
Guide · PDF
Describes the key tasks, activities, and challenges of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) — a method for characterizing the potential human health effects of public policies and plans. Practical and field-tested.
Download PDFOpen Data Standard · GitHub
A uniform format for reporting government data on the operation, safety, and performance of residential buildings. Enables consumer, research, regulatory, and commercial applications — and promotes accountability by property owners. Creative Commons licensed.
View on GitHubSurvey Instruments · Creative Commons
Two instruments for assessing unmet basic needs in healthcare settings: a 6-question screening questionnaire to identify social and economic barriers to care, and a full self-administered survey covering work, financial security, housing, food security, mobility, neighborhood safety, and social support. Freely adaptable with attribution.
Access SurveyPractice Standards · PDF
Developed by leading HIA practitioners and internationally recognized, these standards define the minimum elements of a valid HIA and benchmarks for effective practice. The foundation for quality and credibility in health impact work.
Download PDFClinical Assessment Tools · PDF
A patient-centered toolkit for assessing social, economic, and physical wellbeing across life domains — Housing, Financial Security, Employment, Nutrition, Emotional Health, Personal Safety, and more. Each domain is rated on a four-level scale (Secure, At Risk, Struggling, In Crisis) to guide care planning and resource navigation.
Assessment Cards Assessment Wheel