The University of Minnesota's State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) is funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help states monitor rates of health insurance coverage, understand factors associated with access to care, and to utilize data for implementation of health reform.

In addition to providing health policy analysis, SHADAC provides technical assistance to federal agencies that conduct health insurance surveys, and states that conduct their own surveys and/or use data from national surveys.

Our goal is to help bridge the gap between health insurance data and the policy making process. SHADAC produces timely and targeted health policy research with a focus on deriving lessons from state variations in policy and outcomes in the national context.

SHADAC maintains an ongoing research agenda related to issues of health insurance coverage and access to care, data collection methods, and state health policy.

For an overview of SHADAC's history, refer to our report, "Bridging the Gap between Research and Policy, 2001-2006."

SHADAC is housed within the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health.