The Future of Public Health: Lesson #4—Believe in Data. Listen to Communities.
Public Health Institute
PHI is dedicated to promoting health & equity for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world.
How do you turn a moment into a movement? Every day this week, we're sharing?the topline lessons learned from our 2021 Annual Report—and the path forward to doing things differently: better, faster, more effectively, more equitably, and for more people.?
The Future of Public Health: Lesson #4—Believe in Data. Listen to Communities.
Data is critical to steer public health, and we also need to make sure that we are hearing from communities to give us the nuance of what is happening on the ground and to understand the data we collect. We know from community-based organizations?what the unmet needs are—where community members are not accessing vaccines, where they may not have health services, where they are experiencing food insecurity or other challenges in accessing the vital conditions for health.
Data to Drive Resources & Vaccines Where They’re Needed Most
The Healthy Places Index (HPI), developed by PHI’s Public Health Alliance of Southern California, is a powerful data, mapping, and policy platform designed to identify opportunities to improve neighborhood health. The HPI’s granular neighborhood data made it possible for organizations, hospitals and health departments to monitor COVID impact, vaccine coverage and demand, prioritizing vulnerable residents to get vaccinated throughout critical points of the pandemic, and helped direct $272 million in federal COVID funding directed to highly impacted communities. The State of California’s Health Equity Metric and Vaccine Equity Metric were based on the HPI. When vaccines were in short supply, the state used the VEM to prioritize allocation of 40% of vaccine doses to California’s lowest VEM quartile. Dr. Rohan Radhakrishna, Deputy Director of the California Department of Public Health Office of Health Equity, said that the state VEM led to an additional 800 shots in arms per day to people living in areas that otherwise would not have been prioritized.
Strengthening Community Power & Trust Through Research Engagement
Surprisingly, research data isn’t always shared directly with those from whom it’s collected. PHI is pioneering best practices for engaging participants in the reporting process so they can protect their health—a critical step in supporting communities that experience harm from how their data has been used. PHI’s Child Health and Development Studies?tested blood levels of 150 Black and 150 non-Black women for chemicals like pesticides, then shared back the results, individually and as a cohort. The personal report-backs led to greater motivation to access health and safety information, and increased engagement with the reports among Black participants. After California's Paradise Fire, neighbors were concerned about home drinking water safety. PHI's Gina Solomon and Tracking California tested water samples, and provided results directly to the community—helping to mitigate some of the ongoing trauma from the wildfire and support rebuilding a sense of community and personal agency.
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Rapid Research to Bolster Hunger Interventions
Research from PHI’s Center for Wellness and Nutrition, published in the CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease, found that increases in food assistance programs implemented by the California Department of Social Services during the COVID-19 pandemic, helped decrease food insecurity for low-income Californians. The agency increased CalFresh benefits and distributed $1.36 billion in food assistance. The PHI study showed that the agency efforts had an impact: 14% of low-income Californians reported facing very low food security during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with 19.4% who reported that status in the pre-COVID period. The PHI data supported federal decisions to extend and expand the federal Pandemic EBT and SNAP food assistance programs.
Local Knowledge & Data for Targeted Support
PHI’s contact tracing partnership with Kaiser Permanente blended epidemiologic data on COVID-19 incidence and trends, along with data from PHI’s Healthy Places Index tool on prevalence and location of vulnerable populations. To prioritize areas with the greatest need and fewest resources, PHI mapped where health department partnerships were strong, incorporated?data on intensive care unit and emergency department capacity, and identified hard-hit areas like nursing homes and assisted living facilities that struggled to maintain staffing.
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Pharmacist II HIV/AIDS, SRH, Mental Health & NCDs II Global Public Health II International Development, Policy & Advocacy II Project Management ll Implementation science ll Vaccines
2 年Every point made during this series has been solid 1. Community based partners...tried tested and proven 2. Data tells its own story...data is everything in Public health. Right from the Community to National programs...data is what makes the difference.