How does a US federal agency analyze tens of millions of records across 30,000 sites in over 50 countries analyze these data efficiently and effectively? Five years ago, our team ventured beyond the confines of (largely) Excel and towards leveraging R to be more efficient in our analysis and workflows since data is instrumental to the mission of ending the global HIV epidemic. We have created our own 'pit of success', providing analysts the infrastructure and support needed to ease the learning of and working with R in our specific context. We will be sharing our experiences in digging this 'pit of success' that organizations would benefit from.
Talk materials are available at https://speakerdeck.com/achafetz/digging-a-pit-of-success-for-your-organization.
Aaron Chafetz is a Senior Economist at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Office of HIV/AIDS, where he specializes in quantitative analysis of global health data. Most of his work is concentrated in analyzing large quantities of data from health facilities and communities around the world, identifying indicator trends and outliers to inform data drive decision making within the interagency space of PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Aaron works with a small team of data scientists and analysts, helping to advance analytics, tools, and communication both at headquarters and the field. He has held prior positions at USAID since 2013, working for the Agency’s Chief Economist and serving in the Office of Economic Policy. He received his Master's in Public Policy from the University of Virginia after studying economics and foreign affairs there as well for his undergraduate degree.
