We all know that where you live determines a lot about your well-being, and even a few blocks can mean years of difference in life expectancy.

When working with communities to improve health, there are many aspects to consider. How do nonprofits and foundations identify their most pressing health issues? How do groups know exactly where to focus their efforts? When striving for maximum impact, these are incredibly important questions to ask.

Thanks to a new website we created in partnership with the Missouri Hospital Association Health Institute and the University of Missouri CARES team, it's easier than ever to connect geography and health down to the county and ZIP-code levels. This includes making connections between social determinants of health and what outcomes they may lead to years later.

Using complex data analytics, the exploreMOhealth.org platform allows interested groups to pinpoint their efforts in Missouri, and identify health disparities in a more accurate and coordinated way. Best of all, this tool is available for free to researchers, community health professionals, and anyone else who's interested in exploring the health of Missouri.