This week, Mathematica Policy Research, a leader in assessing policy and program effectiveness for almost 50 years, launched two new divisions focused on the growing needs for data analytics and rigorous, evidence-based international research to inform public policy.
"These two new divisions reflect the growing importance of providing global solutions that maximize the power of data," said Paul Decker, president and CEO of Mathematica. "The leadership and management of our new Data Analytics and International Research Divisions will ensure that we meet the needs of our clients today while building the capacity to realize the full potential of these areas in the future. These are exciting and unprecedented times for data science. Mathematica brings decades of program knowledge, technical skills, and experience to ensure we ask the right questions and apply the right approaches to solving our clients' complex needs."
Maximizing the Power of Data
As a leader in policy research, we build on our extensive knowledge of policy and programs to design and implement analytics solutions that maximize the power of data to answer today's most challenging questions. Mathematica's data scientists, data management and data quality specialists, and public program experts inform policy and program development decisions through sophisticated data management, data analytics, data mining, and predictive models to help clients make better operational decisions. Our expertise includes data warehousing, and statistical methods, combined with extensive knowledge of public program administrative data.
"Mathematica has been a pioneer in both present-day data analytics and program performance and the precursors to that work. The new Data Analytics Division builds on that analytic experience and knowledge base," said Myles Maxfield, senior vice president and director of the new division. "Our team of data analytics experts helps clients organize and analyze data and make findings more accessible and actionable, to ultimately inform and improve programs and policies."
Some examples of Mathematica's current data analytics projects include developing and deploying measures of health care quality, teacher value added, overall program performance, and program payment accuracy. For example, we have worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to support the development, production, and dissemination of comprehensive physician feedback reports to improve the quality, efficiency, and delivery of medical care. For this project we provided data management, analysis, and interpretation, as well as report programming, analytics, and visualization. We are also assisting CMS with the creation and operation of a comprehensive data warehouse to facilitate health insurance marketplace operations. Our work includes data integration, data warehousing, and multidimensional analytics. Other examples include our work for the Food and Nutrition Service. We are measuring program access, trends, and impacts for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by developing and using microsimulation models to assess proposed changes to SNAP policy.
Providing High Quality, Rigorous International Research
Mathematica's International Research Division provides high quality and objective research-based information to funders and policymakers tackling today's most pressing policy problems around the world. To date, our international experts have worked on numerous international projects with governments, donors, foundations, and nonprofit partners to assess program impacts and measure results. We have worked with over 20 agencies and philanthropic organizations in more than 40 countries.
"Our International Division delivers high quality, rigorous research and evaluations to provide evidence-based solutions to inform policy," said Anu Rangarajan, vice president and director of the division. "This growth underlines our organizational commitment to international research. We look forward to continuing to collaborate, understand, and respond to the needs of funders and other stakeholders to help improve the lives of people living in poverty around the world."
To date, Mathematica has provided a variety of research-related activities across all of our international focus areas: agriculture, democracy and governance, early childhood, education, finance, health, infrastructure, social protection, and water and sanitation. Our international work began with an evaluation of a conditional cash transfer program in Jamaica. Since then our work has grown considerably, and we have conducted many multisector evaluations for the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Our Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Reads project includes five impact and cost evaluations of early literacy initiatives and access to education in conflict settings in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Our multicountry evaluation of the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program examines the use of scholarships, career development, and other support services as a lever for broad social transformation by building a new generation of leaders in Africa. We are also engaged in the evaluation of health-focused interventions, including programs that aim to strengthen health systems and expand health coverage in developing countries, enhance maternal and child nutrition, and improve access to water and sanitation services. We have also conducted infrastructure projects in Tanzania as well as evaluations of democracy and governance in countries including Rwanda and social protection efforts to end trafficking.