About

Pumphandle, LLC helps find meaning in large public health data sets.

Pumphandle was founded by Francis Boscoe in 2019 following 20 years of service with the New York State Department of Health. The business is named for Dr. John Snow’s removal of a pump handle from a contaminated well in London in 1854 which helped establish that cholera was a waterborne disease. It remains a defining event in the fields of epidemiology and geography.

Past and present clients and collaborators include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Cancer Institute, National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, New York State Department of Health,Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the University of California-San Francisco.

Update, October 2020: I have proudly signed the John Snow Memorandum, which conveys a clear and simple message on how best to control the COVID-19 pandemic with evidence-based science, including physical distancing, use of face coverings, hand and respiratory hygiene, and by avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces.