Python, Politics, and Public Health

Python is everywhere—except, it seems, in public health. As a global health practitioner working across continents, I have used Python behind the scenes to influence policy, support technical decisions, and uncover hidden patterns in health data. This talk will present rapid case studies of Python’s role in public health decision-making, from the Pacific Islands to China, from the Philippines to Europe.

• We will explore a network analysis of a social media debate on vaping that unexpectedly intersected with regional politics.
• We will examine visualisations of heart disease and stroke mortality that reframed health improvement strategies.
• We will explore a data pipeline on women's health that created the graphic backbone of a European report on the subject.
• We will look at a gamification of chronic disease progress in Europe that informed the European Programme of Work on United Action for Health 2026–2030.

Each of these examples demonstrates the power of Python’s ecosystem—not just for data science but for influencing real-world health policy.

Despite its versatility, Python remains underutilised in public health. Why does this gap exist? How can we bridge the divide between Python as a tool for developers and its potential as an engine for “hacking health”? This talk will close with a Call for Health, inviting collaboration on ways to make Python a more prominent force for population health.