HealthLandscape Joins Esri Partner Network

HealthLandscape has joined the Esri Partner Network as a Silver Tier Partner.  As Silver Partners, HealthLandscape joins a global community of geographic information system (GIS) specialists offering expertise, solutions, and services in ArcGIS and related products.

As a Silver Tier Partner, HealthLandscape receives exclusive communication and collaboration services, in addition to Esri software use and knowledge to better meet our customers’ needs. This benefits HealthLandscape clients in a number of key ways, including:

• Access to the full suite of Esri products for testing and developing new tools and functionality;

• Access to “early” knowledge of technology and product changes; and

• Access to industry leading experts and thought leaders within Esri and partners worldwide.

We are excited to join the Esri Partner Network and use its many benefits to support our customers. This partnership will also allow us to strengthen our offerings and Esri programs like the ArcGIS Living Atlas and ArcGIS Marketplace will allow us to highlight our capabilities and expand into additional markets.

Esri is a developer and marketer of proprietary GIS software, data, and online and professional services. The Esri Partner Network is a global network of partners that share a common vision, interests and goals with Esri; apply geospatial industry best practices; and employ innovative business strategies to deliver market-leading geospatial solutions and services based on Esri technology. Lean more about the Esri Partner Network at https://www.esri.com/en-us/about/esri-partner-network/overview

Mark Carrozza

Director, HealthLandscape

National Immunization Awareness Month

In 1796, the first vaccine was administered to protect the populace against smallpox. Since then, researchers and scientists have developed and tested a multitude of vaccines against diseases such as cholera, yellow fever, tuberculosis, polio, measles, Lyme disease, and hepatitis A. These preventive measures are a way of cutting down the risk of contracting fatal pathogens. Vaccines work by building up your immune system so that if and when you are exposed to pathogens, your body is prepared to fight against it. Being inoculated against a particular illness not only bolsters your protection, but also that of those around you.

Sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and coordinated by the National Public Health Information Coalition, National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) is held every August to highlight the importance of vaccination. The Public Health Foundation cites three key points that the NIAM campaign focuses on:

1. vaccines are important in protecting people against disease
2. vaccines are recommended for all stages of one’s life, and
3. having a reliable health care provider who is knowledgeable is integral in making sure people get the vaccines they need.

Throughout the NIAM campaign, each week in August targets a specific theme. The first week focuses on babies and pregnant women, the second on children, pre-teens, and teens, followed by young adults in the third week. The last week during NIAM is dedicated to promoting vaccines among adults.

HealthLandscape, in collaboration with the Health of the Public and Science (HOPS) division of the American Academy of Family Physicians, has created an Immunizations Mapper. This mapping application displays state level immunization information for legislative purposes. It is grouped into three main topics covering vaccine-specific coverage levels for children 19-35 months, adolescents 13-17 years, and influenza/pneumococcal vaccination coverage. Users can select a variety of vaccines to display the coverage rate for DTaP, MMR, Varicella, Tdap, HPV, and influenza and streptococcus pneumoniae. When users click on the data table feature of the application, they can view data on which states have the authority to operate an Immunization Information System (IIS) for adults or children, reporting requirements, whether children and adults can opt out via a consent form, and the state registry website.

Percent coverage among children 19-35 months for the vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (source: CDC)

HealthLandscape users can also find vaccine related measures in Community HealthView, our extensive data library for state and county level data on topics ranging from demographics to veterans to chronic health to economics. Users will find several indicators related to vaccine coverage including percentage of the population 65 and over with an influenza vaccine in the past year and percentage of the population 65 and over that ever had a pneumococcal vaccine. Both of these indicators are from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for data years 2006-2012.

Percent adults 65 and over with an influenza vaccine (source: BRFSS)

Legislators, health professionals, and public health experts can use tools like HealthLandscape’s Immunizations Mapper and Community HealthView during the NIAM campaign to pinpoint areas to target resources and to collect information on current legislation as they relate to vaccine coverage.

Dave Grolling

GIS Strategist, HealthLandscape

Celebrating Health Center Week

National Health Center Week (NHCW) is an annual time to celebrate the nation’s health centers which serve as health homes to over 28 million otherwise underserved patients. Health centers are incubi for innovations to serve the whole patient including their social determinants of health (SDOH). For NHCW, August 4-10, 2019, every day has a different theme within which we can honor the health centers that are rooted in the communities they serve - within and outside of the clinic walls.

Today, Sunday, August 4, the theme is Social Determinants. SDOH have been shown to have a larger impact on personal health than medical care, genetics and health behaviors. Growing awareness of the impact of SDOH has led to calls by federal agencies to include SDOH in health care decision-making and payment as well as patient risk stratification. The National Academy of Medicine included 17 social and behavioral domains of SDOH data (“neighborhood” data is the only domain that is not individual-level data) to capture in EHRs as a part of Meaningful Use, and many organizations have developed tools to help organizations capture those data. Other organizations, like HealthLandscape, use data from secondary sources which tell us a lot about the neighborhood where a person lives, therefore already filling in much of the picture without needing to capture data on all 16 individual-level domains, or adding to the picture in other cases.

But the question remains - what do we do with these data once they are captured and added to the EHR? Who needs those data? What will they look like? How do we integrate them with clinical data? Most solutions are still focused on the individual patient - connecting patients to resources and providing referrals - but what about the population health targets like payment reformation and patient-risk stratification? HealthLandscape is working on these and other questions related to the addition of these data to EHRs. In our Community Vital Signs suite of tools we have many different visualizations of patient data - both clinical and community data - so we can test and improve the inclusion of SDOH in health care to improve population health. Visit our Population Health Profiler to see one example of these tools.

In the meantime, our other mapping tools like the UDS Mapper and others allow you to quickly visualize (without full EHR integration) how SDOH affect communities. Within the UDS Mapper we provide ZIP Code-level SDOH. Users can explore their communities and see where there are pockets of need, identify areas for growth, and plan to meet community needs. Health centers have always been rooted in communities, and the UDS Mapper is the tool that helps visualize need in those communities.

If you have questions, or would like assistance with any of the HealthLandscape tools mentioned above, please contact us anytime. 

Jennifer Rankin

Senior Manager, Research and Product Services

HealthLandscape