Healthy Regions & Policies Lab

What Healthy Regions & Policies Lab does

The Healthy Regions & Policies Lab (HEROP Lab) is an academic research laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), housed within the Department of Geography & GIScience and directed by Principal Investigator Dr. Marynia Kolak. The lab links geography, open GIS, and computational social science to measure how social, spatial, racial, built-environment, and structural drivers shape health outcomes. Originally based at the University of Chicago's Center for Spatial Data Science, it relocated to UIUC in 2022 and was awarded a $1.4M Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant that same year to support the SDOH & Place Project.

HEROP's product portfolio comprises open-source geospatial data platforms — the U.S. COVID Atlas, ChiVes (Chicago Environment App), the Opioid Environment & Policy Scan Explorer (OEPS), and the U.S. SDOH Atlas — supported by the SDOH & Place Community Toolkit, the Opioid Environment Toolkit, the oepsData R Package, Atlas Learn, and Atlas Stories. Underlying infrastructure spans R, Python, PostGIS, Google BigQuery (project oeps-391119), open-source GitHub repositories, and web mapping applications. Active research projects include the NIH/NIDA-funded LOUD Study (localizing opioid use disorder response), the JCOIN Geospatial Core under NIDA/NIH MAARC, and the NASA-funded ChiVes Chicago environment initiative. Data assets in OEPS span 300+ variables across 50+ CSV files from 1980-2025 at tract, zip, county, and state scales.

The lab operates as a grant-funded, non-commercial entity: all tools, data platforms, and toolkits are distributed free of charge with no pricing model. Revenue mechanics consist of foundation and federal research grants (RWJF, NIH/NIDA, NASA), with go-to-market executed through community engagement — the annual SDOH & Place Symposium (capped near 60 attendees for depth), the SDOH & Place Fellowship program (15 fellows per cohort), the HEROP Speaker Series, conference presentations (AAG, IMGS, SER, GeoMED, CaGIS+UCGIS), YouTube tutorials, a WordPress newsletter (26 subscribers), and partnerships with community organizations such as Instituto Del Progreso Latino, the Nature Conservancy, Audubon Society, and the Field Museum. Primary user communities include academic researchers, public health practitioners, community organizations, policymakers, and healthcare providers.

Name

Healthy Regions & Policies Lab

Legal name

Healthy Regions & Policies Lab

Website

https://healthyregions.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Healthy Regions & Policies Lab (HEROP Lab) is an academic research lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that develops open-source geospatial data platforms, toolkits, and R packages to measure place-based social determinants of health, serving academic researchers, public health practitioners, community organizations, and policymakers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Geospatial Health Analytics

NAICS

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171), Administration of Public Health Programs (92312)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Health Equity, SDOH & Disparities Measurement (HLAJANAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) & Community Resource Referral Analytics (HLACAHAG), Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) & Equity Measurement (HLAJAJAI)

Keywords

• Spatial data science
• Health equity research
• Open source GIS
• Geospatial analytics
• Place-based research

Headquarters

HQ city

Urbana

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Research Grant Funding: Primary funding from major health foundations and federal agencies including Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ($1.4M grant), NIH/NIDA for LOUD Study and opioid research, and NASA for ChiVes project. Funding supports SDOH data discovery tools, community practice tools, and specific research projects.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Healthy Regions & Policies Lab develops and distributes open-source geospatial data platforms, interactive web atlases, R packages, and educational toolkits that enable researchers, public health practitioners, and community organizations to measure and visualize place-based social determinants of health (SDOH). Its core offerings include the U.S. COVID Atlas, ChiVes (Chicago's Environment App), the Opioid Environment & Policy Scan Explorer (OEPS), the U.S. SDOH Atlas, and the SDOH & Place Data Discovery Platform, all offered free of charge to support health equity research and community advocacy.

Product overview

Healthy Regions & Policies Lab operates as a research laboratory developing an integrated portfolio of open-source geospatial data platforms and tools for health equity research. The core products include the U.S. COVID Atlas, ChiVes (Chicago's Environment App), Opioid Environment & Policy Scan Explorer (OEPS), and U.S. SDOH Atlas for visualizing health determinants. These are supported by the SDOH & Place toolkit ecosystem featuring the Community Toolkit, Opioid Environment Toolkit, and Data Discovery Platform. The lab also provides programmatic access through the oepsData R package and BigQuery integration, enabling researchers to programmatically access and analyze opioid environment and SDOH data. Educational programs include the SDOH & Place Fellowship, annual SDOH & Place Symposium, and HEROP Speaker Series. The Geospatial Consortium & Community of Practice supports opioid epidemic research through collaborative geospatial methods.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SDOH & Place Project: A project dedicated to making complex Social Determinants of Health data accessible for public health planning and community advocacy, including a toolkit and data discovery platform.
• ChiVes
• US Covid Atlas
• Opioid Environment & Policy Scan Explorer (OEPS)

Products and services

• U.S. COVID Atlas A free and open-source data visualization platform connecting COVID-19 case data and community indicators across the United States from the pandemic's beginning through the present, providing validated county-level data and spatial analysis to understand pandemic spread in communities.
• ChiVes (Chicago's Environment App) A data collaborative and community mapping application bringing data on Chicago's environment together at the neighborhood level, harmonizing environmental and health data including tree cover, air pollution estimates, heat island effects, traffic volumes, and social vulnerability index across census tracts.
• Opioid Environment & Policy Scan Explorer (OEPS) An open data warehouse exploring the multi-dimensional risk environment impacting opioid use and health outcomes across the United States, containing 300+ variables at four geography levels (state, county, tract, ZCTA) from 1980 to 2025. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
• U.S. Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Atlas An interactive atlas examining social determinants of health at census tract level across the United States, grouping census tracts into neighborhood types based on 15 common SDOH indicators across four dimensions. Featured as Carto's Map of the Month.

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational network supported by NIDA/NIH. HEROP Lab serves as Geospatial Core, contributing methodology and advanced analytics resources to the network.
• Instituto Del Progreso LatinocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNonprofit community agency and co-designer of ChiVes application. Hosted environmental justice workshops in Pilsen, Chicago to expand the application with community participation.
• Nature ConservancyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner and supporter of ChiVes Data Collaborative, providing insights and environmental data for Chicago environmental mapping.
• Audubon SocietyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner and supporter of ChiVes Data Collaborative for Chicago environmental data integration.
• Field MuseumminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner and supporter of ChiVes Data Collaborative for Chicago environmental data integration.
• University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaigncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerInstitutional home of the lab; Department of Geography & GIScience provides academic infrastructure, facilities (Natural History Building), and student pipeline.
• SDOH & Place FellowscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVirtual fellowship program with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funding; 15 fellows annually develop web mapping applications using SDOH data, creating a community of practice around health equity.
• ChiVes Data Collaborative PartnerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-stakeholder collaborative including Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium, Chicago Botanic Gardens, Microsoft Research, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Mansueto Institute (UChicago), UChicago Dept of Geophysical Sciences, Northwestern Climate Change Research Group, and DePaul University Geography Dept.
• Geospatial Consortium & Community of Practice (GCCP)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration of researchers and practitioners meeting regularly to share geospatial methods, tools, and models for opioid epidemic understanding. Part of NIDA/NIH MAARC initiative.
• Chicago Department of Public HealthminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerGovernment partner collaborating on ChiVes environmental justice workshops and community health initiatives.
• People's Response NetworkminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity partner in environmental justice workshops with ChiVes in Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Center for Spatial Data Science (University of Chicago): HEROP Lab's former institutional home at the University of Chicago, conducting spatial data science research with policy applications. Highly comparable as a peer academic research unit working on geospatial analytics for social and urban issues.
• PolicyMap: A commercial data platform specializing in neighborhood-level SDOH, health, and demographic data with mapping and analytics. Directly comparable in product offering (place-based SDOH analytics) but differentiated by its paid commercial model versus HEROP's open-source approach.
• Urban Institute: A major economic and social policy research nonprofit producing open data, dashboards, and reports on housing, health, and equity at the neighborhood level. Comparable in producing open, place-based evidence used by researchers and policymakers.
• City Health Dashboard: An NYU Langone Health initiative providing open-access data on health and social determinants across U.S. cities. Highly comparable as another free, place-based health data platform serving researchers, policymakers, and community organizations.
• County Health Rankings & Roadmaps: A University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute program offering county-level health and SDOH data across the U.S. Comparable in mission (open data on place-based health determinants) and in being an academic-affiliated initiative with strong funder backing (RWJF).
• CDC PLACES: A CDC data program providing model-based population-level health estimates and SDOH indicators for every U.S. census tract, county, and place. Directly comparable as a free, authoritative source of place-based health equity data.

Broad incumbents

• Esri Health and Human Services: Esri's health-focused GIS solutions provide enterprise-grade spatial analytics for health systems, public health agencies, and research institutions. A broad incumbent in the same category as HEROP's tools but operating as a large commercial vendor.
• CARTO: A commercial cloud-native geospatial analytics platform used widely for SDOH and location intelligence use cases. HEROP's SDOH Atlas was featured as CARTO's Map of the Month, indicating a partnership-style relationship and shared customer base.
• Public Health Institute: A nonprofit public health organization that builds open data, research, and capacity-building programs addressing health equity and SDOH. Comparable as a mission-aligned organization with similar funder relationships (RWJF, NIH) and SDOH focus.

Emerging players

• Opportunity Insights (Harvard): A Harvard-based research initiative producing widely cited place-based data products (e.g., the Opportunity Atlas) on economic mobility and neighborhood opportunity. Comparable as an academic data lab producing open spatial datasets that influence policy and research.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/healthyregions
• GitHubgithub.com/healthyregions
• YouTubeyoutube.com/playlist?list=PLi9Z7UD_p9f8xEga76YV3FyLhiyL8twmm
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/healthy-regions-and-policies-lab

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Healthy Regions & Policies Lab